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Microelectrode bioimpedance analysis distinguishes basal and claudin-low subtypes of triple negative breast cancer cells

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Abstract

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is highly aggressive and has a poor prognosis when compared to other molecular subtypes. In particular, the claudin-low subtype of TNBC exhibits tumor-initiating/cancer stem cell like properties. Here, we seek to find new biomarkers to discriminate different forms of TNBC by characterizing their bioimpedance. A customized bioimpedance sensor with four identical branched microelectrodes with branch widths adjusted to accommodate spreading of individual cells was fabricated on silicon and pyrex/glass substrates. Cell analyses were performed on the silicon devices which showed somewhat improved inter-electrode and intra-device reliability. We performed detailed analysis of the bioimpedance spectra of four TNBC cell lines, comparing the peak magnitude, peak frequency and peak phase angle between claudin-low TNBC subtype represented by MDA-MB-231 and Hs578T with that of two basal cells types, the TNBC MDA-MB-468, and an immortalized non-malignant basal breast cell line, MCF-10A. The claudin-low TNBC cell lines showed significantly higher peak frequencies and peak phase angles than the properties might be useful in distinguishing the clinically significant claudin-low subtype of TNBC.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the morphology service laboratory and Kathy Lowe for support with sample preparation for SEM imaging. This work was primarily supported by the National Science Foundation IDR Award: ECCS-0925945.

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  1. The Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Tech, 302, Whittemore Hall, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Vaishnavi Srinivasaraghavan, Jeannine Strobl & Masoud Agah

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  1. Vaishnavi Srinivasaraghavan
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  2. Jeannine Strobl
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Correspondence to Masoud Agah.

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Srinivasaraghavan, V., Strobl, J. & Agah, M. Microelectrode bioimpedance analysis distinguishes basal and claudin-low subtypes of triple negative breast cancer cells. Biomed Microdevices 17, 80 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-015-9977-2

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