Micro electrical impedance spectroscopy (μEIS) with cell traps in various size for differentiation between normal and cancerous human urothelial cells

This paper describes a novel micro electrical impedance spectroscopy (μEIS) device with cell traps, which can discriminate between normal and cancerous human urothelial cells. Three-dimensional traps with electrodes were employed for effective capture of target cells. This allows cells to be automatically captured, while the electrodes on the slanted area of the trap accurately characterize the electrical impedance of the cells. The device is equipped with five traps of various dimensions in a single device, which can capture various types of cells regardless of their size and deformability. The μEIS device accurately distinguished cancerous human urothelial cells (TCCSUP) from normal cells (SV-HUC-1); the average differences in the phase angle and resistance between the target cells were 1.8° at 119 kHz and 416.1 Ω at 109 kHz, respectively.