Monitoring of cellular signalling and metabolism with modular sensor-technique: the PhysioControl-Microsystem (PCM)

Microsensors provide instruments particularly suited for the noninvasive analysis of cell and tissue cultures. The outstanding benefit lies in the passive behaviour of continuously working transducers, which in turn allows the dynamic recording of function-specific cellular processes. The microsensor system presented in this paper is a modular arrangement of various planar and non-planar sensor elements surrounding small cell culture chambers. An optic access to the cultures (e.g. for high resolution light microscopy and spectro-photometric techniques) enables a parallel and comparative data acquisition. The system was originally designed for biomedical research in chemotherapy and pharmacology but it proved to be an effective device both for toxicological and environmental research.