Impedance spectroscopy of the cell/nanovolcano interface enables optimization for electrophysiology

Volcano-shaped microelectrodes have demonstrated superior performance in measuring attenuated intracellular action potentials from cardiomyocyte cultures. However, their application to neuronal cultures has not yet yielded reliable intracellular access. This common pitfall supports a growing consensus in the field that nanostructures need to be pitched to the cell of interest to enable intracellular access. Accordingly, we present a new methodology that enables us to resolve the cell/probe interface noninvasively through impedance spectroscopy. This method measures changes in the seal resistance of single cells in a scalable manner to predict the quality of electrophysiological recordings. In particular, the impact of chemical functionalization and variation of the probe’s geometry can be quantitatively measured. We demonstrate this approach on human embryonic kidney cells and primary rodent neurons. Through systematic optimization, the seal resistance can be increased by as much as 20-fold with chemical functionalization, while different probe geometries demonstrated a lower impact. The method presented is therefore well suited to the study of cell coupling to probes designed for electrophysiology, and it is poised to contribute to elucidate the nature and mechanism of plasma membrane disruption by micro/nanostructures.