Dielectrophoresis-based discrimination of hepatic carcinoma cells following treatment with cytotoxic agents

Abstract

Lack of advancement in detection of abnormal liver cells is a major drawback in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that could results in late diagnosis. This study aims to discriminate the malignant cells from the normal counterparts, and apoptotic cells from viable cells using a microfluidic dielectrophoresis (DEP)-based technology. The discrimination of the viable and non-viable HCC cells was conducted upon treatment with plant-based cytotoxic agent konjac glucomannan (KGM). DEP analyses of human normal liver (WRL68) cells showed slight positive-DEP effect while liver cancer (HepG2) cells was highly negative. This broad dielectric difference is due to the tumorigenic alterations in HepG2 cells. Exposure to cytotoxic agents showed a significant shift from negative-DEP to positive-DEP, indicating apoptosis-induced reduction in membrane negativity. The results indicate the feasibility of DEP method in cancer screening.

Keywords

• Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)
• Dielectrophoresis (DEP)
• Apoptosis
• Cytotoxic agents
• Microfluidic technology