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Label-free impedance flow cytometry for nanotoxicity screening
Melanie Ostermann1, Alexander Sauter1,2, Ying Xue1
1Department of Clinical Dentistry, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Scientific Reports
|January 12, 2020
Summary
Label-free impedance flow cytometry (IFC) offers a reliable and efficient method for in vitro nanotoxicity screening. This technique accurately assesses nanomaterial toxicity without time-consuming labeling steps, minimizing interferences.
Area of Science:
- Toxicology
- Biotechnology
- Materials Science
Background:
- Assessing nanomaterial (NM) toxicity is crucial for human health and nanotechnology advancement.
- Existing methods for nanotoxicity screening can be time-consuming and prone to interference.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the reliability and applicability of label-free impedance flow cytometry (IFC) for in vitro nanotoxicity screening.
- To compare IFC with traditional methods like trypan blue (TB) dye exclusion and conventional flow cytometry (FC).
Main Methods:
- U937 human lymphoma cells were exposed to eight different NMs at various concentrations.
- Label-free impedance flow cytometry (IFC) was used to measure NM effects on cell viability.
- IFC settings and buffer composition were optimized for discriminating viable from necrotic cells.
- IFC results were compared with TB dye exclusion and conventional FC.
Main Results:
- Optimized IFC settings achieved clear discrimination between viable and necrotic cells at 6 MHz in a sucrose-based buffer.
- No NM-induced interferences were detected with IFC.
- IFC results showed strong agreement with the trypan blue assay for all tested NMs.
Conclusions:
- Label-free IFC is a robust and reliable method for in vitro nanotoxicity screening.
- IFC offers an advantage over traditional methods by being label-free and less prone to interferences.
- This technique facilitates efficient and accurate assessment of nanomaterial impact on human health.
