A Membrane Filter-Assisted Mammalian Cell-Based Biosensor Enabling 3D Culture and Pathogen Detection

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 21; no. 9; p. 3042
• Main Authors: Cho, Il-Hoon, Jeon, Jin-Woo, Choi, Min-Ji, Cho, Hyun-Mo, Lee, Jong-Sung, Kim, Dong-Hyung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 26.04.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: 3D cell culture; Animals; Bacteria; Biosensing Techniques; Biosensors; Cartridges; Cell adhesion & migration; Cell culture; Cell Culture Techniques; Cell growth; cell-based biosensor; Color imagery; Colorimetry; Communication; E coli; Escherichia coli; Ethanol; Gene expression; Hydrophobicity; Immunoassay; Lasers; long-term culture; membrane filter-assisted cell-based biosensor; Membrane filters; Membranes; pathogen detection; Pathogens; Penicillin; Polyesters; Scaffolds; United States > US; long-term culture; membrane filter-assisted cell-based biosensor; 3D cell culture; pathogen detection; cell-based biosensor; immunoassay
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s21093042

We have developed a membrane filter-assisted cell-based biosensing platform by using a polyester membrane as a three-dimensional (3D) cell culture scaffold in which cells can be grown by physical attachment. The membrane was simply treated with ethanol to increase surficial hydrophobicity, inducing the stable settlement of cells via gravity. The 3D membrane scaffold was able to provide a relatively longer cell incubation time (up to 16 days) as compared to a common two-dimensional (2D) cell culture environment. For a practical application, we fabricated a cylindrical cartridge to support the scaffold membranes stacked inside the cartridge, enabling not only the maintenance of a certain volume of culture media but also the simple exchange of media in a flow-through manner. The cartridge-type cell-based analytical system was exemplified for pathogen detection by measuring the quantities of toll-like receptor 1 (TLR1) induced by applying a lysate of and live , respectively, providing a fast, convenient colorimetric TLR1 immunoassay. The color images of membranes were digitized to obtain the response signals. We expect the method to further be applied as an alternative tool to animal testing in various research areas such as cosmetic toxicity and drug efficiency.