Detection of heavy metal toxicity using cardiac cell-based biosensor

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Environmental Toxicology
• Cellular Electrophysiology

Background:

• Mammalian cell-based biosensors provide physiological insights into analyte effects.
• Heavy metal toxicity poses significant environmental and health risks.
• Developing sensitive and rapid detection methods for heavy metals is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel biosensor for heavy metal toxicity detection using cell electrophysiology.
• To investigate the application of light-addressable potentiometric sensors (LAPS) with cardiomyocytes.
• To assess the characteristic changes in cardiomyocyte activity upon exposure to various heavy metal ions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized light-addressable potentiometric sensors (LAPS) to record extracellular field potentials of cardiomyocytes.
• Monitored spontaneous beating frequency, amplitude, and duration of cardiomyocytes.
• Exposed cardiomyocytes to different heavy metal ions (Hg2+, Pb2+, Cd2+, Fe3+, Cu2+, Zn2+) at a concentration of 10 μM.

Main Results:

• LAPS successfully recorded cardiomyocyte extracellular field potentials (20–40 μV, 0.5–3 Hz).
• Cardiomyocytes exhibited distinct changes in beating frequency, amplitude, and duration in response to various heavy metal ions within 15 minutes.
• The observed changes correlated with the specific toxic effects of each heavy metal ion.

Conclusions:

• The developed cardiac cell-based biosensor is effective for monitoring heavy metal toxicity.
• LAPS technology enables non-invasive, physiological assessment of ion-induced cellular effects.
• This biosensor holds potential for both acute and chronic toxicity studies of heavy metals.