Plate-based Impedance And MEA Assays

Metrion offers a number of translational plate-based impedance and MEA assays to study cardiac cell patho-physiology using human iPSC models. Currently Metrion has three multi-electrode array (MEA) systems. Our systems enable stand-alone MEA recording (MED64, Axion Maestro) or MEA combined with impedance readout (CardioExcyte96). All three platforms offer plate-based recording at 37°C using non-invasive, label free recording techniques for both short and long term monitoring of compound activity. The Axion Maestro is a high throughput device containing a total of 768 electrodes and features options to record in 24, 48 or 96-well formats. The CardioExcyte96 platform offers dual readout from a single electrode in 96-well format, recording both electrical activity (MEA) and cardiac beating (impedance) from the same population of cells. MED64 offers stimulation via any two of its 64 electrodes and offers an impressive signal to noise ratio.

Investigate the functional characteristics of cardiac cells

MEA platforms are a powerful tool to investigate the electrophysiological characteristics of excitable cells. Human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes plated directly on to recording electrodes rapidly establish a coordinated network of beating cells. Extracellular field potentials (EFP) of cardiac action potential activity can be recorded and used to assess the effects of compounds on excitability, beat rate regularity and conduction velocity, and to compare the physiology and pharmacology of cell populations from different origins. MEA recording can also be used to verify the actions of compounds developed to be active in a specific cardiac cell phenotype, e.g. atrial vs ventricular.

Impedance recordings rely on the formation of confluent cell layers, to allow measurements of changes in cell shape and connectivity, and thus enable the quantitative monitoring of adhesion (viability) and contraction of spontaneously, synchronously beating iPSC cardiomyocytes. Hybrid MEA-impedance screening with CardioExcyte96 enables the integration of complementary information reflecting complex physiological parameters such as cardiac AP firing vscontraction beat rate, amplitude and duration. This impedance platform is ideally suited to identifying cardiac arrythmias such as EADs (Fig. 2) and dissociating contractile effects from changes in electrical activity.

The non-invasive recordings made from cells within a network in a physiologically relevant environment also make the CardioExcyte96 platform ideal for investigating both acute short term effects and chronic cardiotoxicity of compounds over a period of several days. There is growing awareness of the potential of marketed and investigational drugs to produce long term effects on cardiac function, such as doxorubicin and various tyrosine kinase inhibitors used in oncology.

Cardiac Translational Assays Resource Library