A sandwiched PEDOT@Pt-based antifouling electrochemical sensor for real-time monitoring of cells cultured in three-dimensional hydrogel

Abstract

Three-dimensional cell culture has been considered as a powerful tool to achieve the in-vitro investigation that can mimics the cell behaviors and functions in body. With the advancement on this field, the requirements on applying effective identification and quantification strategy for real-time monitoring of cells are becoming more urgently. Therefore, we developed a PEDOT@Pt-based antifouling electrochemical sensor and collagen hydrogel integrated 3D platform. Among the 3D platform, the PEDOT@Pt-based electrochemical sensor presented high performance toward reactive oxygen species (hydrogen peroxide), with a high sensitivity of 176.0 nA/μM in the linear range of 100 nM to 100 μM, and a low detection limit of 43.1 nM. Besides, under the simulated cell culture environment, the electrochemical performance retained up to 70.8 % of the original performance, demonstrating good antifouling property. As a proof of concept, the A549 and HeLa cells were cultured into the 3D platform and the real-time monitoring of cell-released reactive oxygen species were further conducted. More importantly, the reactive oxygen species release behavior of cells under different stimulation were also explored within the 3D integrated platform, which is expected to enable precise biochemical analysis of cells under the in vivo-like microenvironment.