Preliminary Study of Inkjet Printed Sensors for Monitoring Cell Cultures

An extremely promising methodology able to obtain feedbacks from cell cultures is represented by the direct integration within culture substrates of specific sensitive elements capable to provide information related to cell adhesion, migration, differentiation and growth. At present, the most common materials used in the implementation of sensors monitoring 2D cell culture are noble metals. However, printed electronics allow instead an innovative approach, from both sensor realization technique and utilization of sensitive materials. This project aims to develop and test 2D ink-jet printed sensors, focusing on biocompatible substrates and conductive inks. Both biocompatibility and printability of two different sensor designs were evaluated, followed by electronic measurements that estimate fibroblast adhesion. Preliminary findings show a good biocompatibility of the Kapton (R) substrate coupled with PEDOT: PSS ink. This solution allowed us to correlate cell adhesion with an increase of impedance module, in agreement with the optical observation. On-going works rely on the evaluation of different materials used for both substrates and inks, addressing the possibility to monitor cardiomyocyte activity. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.