Investigation of Cell Microenvironment Effect on Cell Behaviors Using Electrochemical Scanning Probe Microscopy

Abstract

Cell microenvironment (chemical, mechanical, electric) directly effects cell functions and behaviors (biology, mechanics, electrophysiology). Study of cell microenvironment effect on cell functions and behaviors is important for understanding the pathological mechanism of diseases (heart disease, cancer). Different kinds of hydrogels, which is an ideal material to mimic 3D extracellular matrix (ECM) of cell, have been developed and used to construct 3D cell microenvironment in vitro. To understand the effect of cell microenvironment constructed by hydrogels on cell behaviors, the technique which can characterize both the property of hydrogels and the topography and multi-behaviors of cells at mm/nm scale in an in-situ, non-damage way is needed. Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) and scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) are two kinds of electrochemical scanning probe microscopy with the capability of providing morphology and performing chemical analyses of cells in an in situ, reversible and non-destructive way. In our work, we firstly constructed cell microenvironment based on three kinds of functional hydrogels (i.e., self-healing hydrogels, magnetic hydrogels and hydrogel microwell arrays). Then SECM was applied to in-situ track the self-healing process of hydrogel, the H2O2 consumption across magnetic hydrogel nanocomposites and the oxygen permeability across hydrogel microwell arrays. The effect of mechanical microenvironment on the redox state of cardiomyocytes and cardiac fibroblasts was also characterized by SECM. To further characterize the cell morphology at nm-scale, we also home built our SICM system and used it to characterize the cell morphology and cell volume on hydrogels with different stuffiness. Figure 1