Abstract:
Measurement of transendothelial or transepithelial electrical resistances (TERs) is a straightforward in situ experimental approach to monitor the expression or modulation of barrier-forming cell-to-cell contacts (tight junctions) in cultured cells grown on porous filters. Although widely accepted, there is currently no device available to automatically measure the time course of TERs under ordinary cell culture conditions (37°C, 5% or 10% CO2). This paper describes a development from our laboratory that is capable of following in parallel the TERs of several filter-grown cell layers with time and in an entirely computer-controlled fashion. The cell cultures can be followed even in long-term experiments without any manual assistance or opening of the incubator. Besides reading TER values, this approach also returns the electrical capacitance of the cell layers, which is indicative of the expression of microvilli and other membrane extrusions. The device is based on reading the frequency-dependent impedance of the cell layer, followed by equivalent circuit modeling to extract the cell-related parameters. It is compatible with several multi-well formats (up to 96 wells) and controlled by custom-designed software that reads, analyzes, and presents the data.

BioTechniques 37:590-597 (October 2004)

Epithelial and endothelial cell layers form selectively permeable barriers. Transport of molecules and ions from the apical to the basolateral side and vice versa requires passage either through the cells (transcellular route) or between the cells and thus through tight junctions (paracellular route).