Electric Field-Driven Preparation of a Microdisk Electrochemical Sensor for Revealing Lamellipodium-Mediated...

Mechanotransduction is a fundamental cellular process. Intercellular communication of mechanotransduction integrates cells, irrespective of whether they are of the same or different types, into a cohesive functional unit, which plays a critical role in tissue and organ regeneration, cell differentiation, cell division, and responses to external stimuli. However, research on intercellular communication in mechanotransduction remains underexplored owing to the absence of highly efficient techniques for the real-time, in situ acquisition of biochemical information at the single-cell level. In this work, we developed an electrochemical analysis method to investigate the pathways and dynamics of lamellipodium-mediated intercellular communication. Specifically, an electric field-driven strategy was developed to fabricate microdisk electrochemical sensors based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/single-walled carbon nanotubes (PEDOT/SWCNTs), followed by decoration with Au nanoparticles to prepared Au/PEDOT/SWCNTs. The resulting Au/PEDOT/SWCNTs microdisk electrochemical sensor exhibits exceptional electrochemical performance. As a concept application, this Au/PEDOT/SWCNTs microdisk electrochemical sensor was employed to monitor NO release during intercellular communication of mechanotransduction between human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Our findings demonstrated that lamellipodia can transmit mechanical stimulation from a stimulated HUVEC to a recipient HUVEC connected via lamellipodia, thereby triggering NO production and release in the recipient cells. The transmission takes approximately 70 ± 20 ms, with a transmission efficiency of approximately 77.2%. This study provides novel insights into the lamellipodia-mediated intercellular communication in mechanotransduction and offers a method for investigating such processes.