TY - JOUR A1 - Flachs, Dennis A1 - Etzel, Johannes A1 - Mayer, Margot A1 - Harbecke, Frederic A1 - Belle, Stefan A1 - Rickmeyer, Tim A1 - Thielemann, Christiane T1 - Characterization of electrically conductive, printable ink based on alginate hydrogel and graphene nanoplatelets JF - Biomedical Engineering Advances N2 - In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in electrically conductive hydrogels for a wide range of biomedical applications, like tissue engineering or biosensors. In this study, we present a cost-effective conductive hydrogel based on alginate and graphene nanoplatelets for extrusion-based bioprinters. The hydrogel is prepared under ambient conditions avoiding high temperatures detrimental for cell culture environments. Investigation of the hydrogel revealed a conductivity of up to 7.5 S/cm, depending on the ratio of platelets. Furthermore, in vitro tests with human embyronic kidney cells - as an example cell type - showed good adhesion of the cells to the surface of the conductive hydrogel. Electrochemical measurements revealed a low electrode impedance which is desirable for the extracellular recording, but also low electrode capacitance, which is unfavorable for electrical stimulation purposes. Therefore, future experiments with the graphene nanoplatelets-based hydrogels will focus on electrodes for biosensors and extracellular recordings of neurons or cardiac myocytes. KW - Hydrogel KW - Biosensor KW - Alginate Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bea.2022.100045 VL - 2022 IS - 4 SP - 1 EP - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Flachs, Dennis A1 - Ciba, Manuel T1 - Cell-based sensor chip for neurotoxicity measurements in drinking water JF - Lékař a technika - Clinician and Technology N2 - Our drinking water contains residues of pharmaceuticals. A sub-group of these contaminants are neuro-active substances, the antiepileptic carbamazepine being one of the most relevant. For assessment of the neurotoxicity of this drug at a sub-therapeutic level, a cell-based sensor chip platform has been realized and characterized. For this purpose, a microelectrode array chip was designed and processed in a clean room and optimized in terms of low processing costs and good recording properties. For characterization of the system neuronal cells were plated on microelectrode array chips and electrical activity was measured as a function of applied carbamazepine concentration. We found that the relative spike rate decreased with increasing drug concentration resulted in IC50 values of around 36 μM. This value is five orders of magnitude higher than the maximal dose found in drinking water. IC50 values for burst rate, burst duration and synchrony were slightly higher, suggesting spike rate being a more sensitive parameter to carbamazepine. KW - Microelectrode array KW - Carbamazepine KW - Neurotoxicity KW - Cell-based biosensor KW - Mikroelektrode KW - Array KW - Biosensor KW - Neurotoxizität Y1 - 2016 VL - 46 IS - 2 SP - 46 EP - 50 ER -