Cellular Adhesion and Spreading of Endothelial Cells Monitored in Real Time Using the Quartz Crystal Microbalance

Abstract

AbstractWe have applied the Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) technique to continuously record the processes of endothelial cell (EC) adhesion, spreading and cellular mass distribution changes during initial cell to surface contact and homeostatic attachment. ECs (50,000) were layered onto a set volume of media in the QCM device and simultaneously in a mock cell used for photomicroscopy. As cells were observed in the mock cell device to contact and attach to the surface over 45-55 min, we measured in the QCM device a continuous decrease in frequency and continuous increase in resistance, achieving a maximum at about one hr (1400 Ω frequency change and 1400 Ω motional resistance change). These frequency and resistance values stabilized over the next 24 hrs and were unchanged out to 72 hr by QCM measurement (to ∼700 Hz, ∼700 Ω), as the cells were observed to spread in the mock device. Both bovine aortic (BAE) and bovine capillary (BCE) endothelial cells were studied and found to exhibit similar behavior. These studies demonstrate that QCM can be used to detect continuous changes in cell mass and viscoelastic behavior.