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Updated: Dec 11, 2025

Label-free Isolation and Enrichment of Cells Through Contactless Dielectrophoresis
Published on: September 3, 2013
Variable Membrane Dielectric Polarization Characteristic in Individual Live Cells
Insu Park1, Jong Won Lim2, Sung Hoon Kim3,4
1Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.
Abstract:
Investigation of the dielectric properties of cell membranes plays an important role in understanding the biological activities that sustain cellular life and realize cellular functionalities. Herein, the variable dielectric polarization characteristics of cell membranes are reported. In controlling the dielectric polarization of a cell using dielectrophoresis force spectroscopy, different cellular crossover frequencies were observed by modulating both the direction and sweep rate of the frequency. The crossover frequencies were used for the extraction of the variable capacitance, which is involved in the dielectric polarization across the cell membranes. In addition, this variable phenomenon was investigated by examining cells whose membranes were cholesterol-depleted with methyl-β-cyclodextrin, which verified a strong correlation between the variable dielectric polarization characteristics and membrane composition changes. This study presented the dielectric polarization properties in live cells' membranes that can be modified by the regulation of external stimuli and provided a powerful platform to explore cellular membrane dielectric polarization.
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