Micropatterning with different cell types by dielectrophoretic manipulation

In this paper, a versatile, rapid and reproducible method for patterning different cell types based on negative dielectrophoresis (n-DEP), without any special pretreatment of a culture slide, has been described. An interdigitated array (IDA) electrode with four independent microelectrode subunits was fabricated with indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and used as a template to form cellular micropatterns. A suspension of C2C12 cells was introduced into the device between the upper slide and the bottom IDA. In the present system, the n-DEP force is induced by applying an ac voltage (typically 12 V_pp, 1 MHz) to direct cells toward a weaker region of electric field strength. The cells aligned above one of the bands of IDA within 1 min since the aligned areas on the slide were regions with the lower electric field. The application of an ac voltage for 5 min allows the cells to adsorb onto the cell culture slide. After disassembling the device and removing excess cells, the culture slide was assembled again with the IDA electrode, and was rotated 90deg relative to the previous setup. The second cell type was patterned in lines using the same method as with the first set of cells, forming a grid pattern on the slide.