Analysis of Human and Animal Cells

Animal and human cells, especially mammalian cells, play a great role in research, clinical and pharmaceutical applications. Cells are used for studying and finding treatments for diseases, to produce antibodies, proteins, and vaccines, for regenerative medicine, and recently in cellular agriculture to replace animal products.

The analysis and characterization of these cells play a crucial role for the further use. Actual analytical technologies use dyes and markers for the analysis. Amphasys’ technology based on Impedance Flow Cytometry offers a method in which the cells can be reused after analysis. An electrical current is applied for the measurement and depending on the electrical resistance and dielectric properties of cells, the characteristics and properties of the cells can be identified.

Implemented on microfluidic chips, this non-invasive and label-free technique can be used for fast and efficient characterization of single cells in suspension, and the cells still further processed and used for their destined application.

The Ampha X30 is Amphasys’ next generation of cell analyzers for bioprocessing applications. This innovative instrument enables highly accurate determination of cell viability, concentration, cell differentiation and additional cell properties. Easy handling and the fast measurements are supported by the highly sophisticated software AmphaSoft PRO which allows to analyze measurement data in great detail and various views.

Benefits:

  • No labeling, no staining, no incubation
  • No calibration
  • Short sample preparation, short measuring times, immediate results
  • Highly sophisticated software for data analysis
  • Simultaneous analysis of cell viability, counting and other cell properties
  • Cell sizes between 1 µm and 50 µm
  • Low operational costs
  • Online measurements via bypass

Case study: monitoring of metabolic status of CHO cells

The development of adherent CHO cells was monitored over three weeks. In addition of the determination of dead and viable cells, the metabolic status was monitored.

 

Monitoring of metabolic status: CHO

The figure shows an overlay of measurements realized after 4 (blue), 9 (red) and 19 days (green). The small population at the bottom left of the scatterplot represents the dead cells, while the bigger population on the right side represents the viable cells. Interestingly, during the first 9 days the populations of the viable cells are identical in their properties because they do not shift in phase. After 19 days (green) a significant shift to lower phase angels (to the left towards the dead cells) can be observed. This indicates that the cells lose activity due to a scarcity of substrate.

Case study: Apoptosis Monitoring

The detection of apoptosis is a special case in cell analysis and requires so far dedicated equipment and longer assay times. In a study, the effect of Staurosporine on Burkitt lymphoma cells BL2 was investigated.

Screenshot 2023-01-23 at 16.59.25

Staurosporine is a protein kinase inhibitor and apoptosis inducer. The response of BL2 cells to Staurosporine treatment was realized in a time course experiment. In the figure, the control sample (black line) shows activity for more than 10 hours before decreasing in viability. The treatment of the cell line with Staurosporine shows a fast and significant reduction of viability shortly after one hour. Measurements of the cell samples with the Ampha X30 can be performed immediately after sample preparation – without any delay for induction or incubation.

 

Amphasys Cell Analyzer

The Ampha X30 is Amphasys’ next generation for cell analysis in Bioprocessing. It is tailor made for analyzing a broad range of different cell types like bacteria, mammalian, insect, algae or yeast. The newly designed technological platform enables highly accurate determination of, cell viability, concentration, differentiation, and cell status. This information must be considered in scale-up process during propagation in biofuel, bioplastic, enzyme, pharmaceutical or ethanol production.

For more information