Cargando…

Microfluidic Device to Measure the Speed of C. elegans Using the Resistance Change of the Flexible Electrode

This work presents a novel method to assess the condition of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) through a resistance measurement of its undulatory locomotion speed inside a micro channel. As the worm moves over the electrode inside the micro channel, the length of the electrode changes, consequentl...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jung, Jaehoon, Nakajima, Masahiro, Takeuchi, Masaru, Najdovski, Zoran, Huang, Qiang, Fukuda, Toshio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6190434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30407423
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi7030050
_version_ 1783363570182914048
author Jung, Jaehoon
Nakajima, Masahiro
Takeuchi, Masaru
Najdovski, Zoran
Huang, Qiang
Fukuda, Toshio
author_facet Jung, Jaehoon
Nakajima, Masahiro
Takeuchi, Masaru
Najdovski, Zoran
Huang, Qiang
Fukuda, Toshio
author_sort Jung, Jaehoon
collection PubMed
description This work presents a novel method to assess the condition of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) through a resistance measurement of its undulatory locomotion speed inside a micro channel. As the worm moves over the electrode inside the micro channel, the length of the electrode changes, consequently behaving like a strain gauge. In this paper, the electrotaxis was applied for controlling the direction of motion of C. elegans as an external stimulus, resulting in the worm moving towards the cathode of the circuit. To confirm the proposed measurement method, a microfluidic device was developed that employs a sinusoidal channel and a thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer with an electrode. The PDMS layer maintains a porous structure to enable the flexibility of the electrode. In this study, 6 measurements were performed to obtain the speed of an early adult stage C. elegans, where the measured average speed was 0.35 (±0.05) mm/s. The results of this work demonstrate the application of our method to measure the speed of C. elegans undulatory locomotion. This novel approach can be applied to make such measurements without an imaging system, and more importantly, allows directly to detect the locomotion of C. elegans using an electrical signal (i.e., the change in resistance).
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6190434
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-61904342018-11-01 Microfluidic Device to Measure the Speed of C. elegans Using the Resistance Change of the Flexible Electrode Jung, Jaehoon Nakajima, Masahiro Takeuchi, Masaru Najdovski, Zoran Huang, Qiang Fukuda, Toshio Micromachines (Basel) Article This work presents a novel method to assess the condition of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) through a resistance measurement of its undulatory locomotion speed inside a micro channel. As the worm moves over the electrode inside the micro channel, the length of the electrode changes, consequently behaving like a strain gauge. In this paper, the electrotaxis was applied for controlling the direction of motion of C. elegans as an external stimulus, resulting in the worm moving towards the cathode of the circuit. To confirm the proposed measurement method, a microfluidic device was developed that employs a sinusoidal channel and a thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer with an electrode. The PDMS layer maintains a porous structure to enable the flexibility of the electrode. In this study, 6 measurements were performed to obtain the speed of an early adult stage C. elegans, where the measured average speed was 0.35 (±0.05) mm/s. The results of this work demonstrate the application of our method to measure the speed of C. elegans undulatory locomotion. This novel approach can be applied to make such measurements without an imaging system, and more importantly, allows directly to detect the locomotion of C. elegans using an electrical signal (i.e., the change in resistance). MDPI 2016-03-19 /pmc/articles/PMC6190434/ /pubmed/30407423 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi7030050 Text en © 2016 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons by Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jung, Jaehoon
Nakajima, Masahiro
Takeuchi, Masaru
Najdovski, Zoran
Huang, Qiang
Fukuda, Toshio
Microfluidic Device to Measure the Speed of C. elegans Using the Resistance Change of the Flexible Electrode
title Microfluidic Device to Measure the Speed of C. elegans Using the Resistance Change of the Flexible Electrode
title_full Microfluidic Device to Measure the Speed of C. elegans Using the Resistance Change of the Flexible Electrode
title_fullStr Microfluidic Device to Measure the Speed of C. elegans Using the Resistance Change of the Flexible Electrode
title_full_unstemmed Microfluidic Device to Measure the Speed of C. elegans Using the Resistance Change of the Flexible Electrode
title_short Microfluidic Device to Measure the Speed of C. elegans Using the Resistance Change of the Flexible Electrode
title_sort microfluidic device to measure the speed of c. elegans using the resistance change of the flexible electrode
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6190434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30407423
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi7030050
work_keys_str_mv AT jungjaehoon microfluidicdevicetomeasurethespeedofcelegansusingtheresistancechangeoftheflexibleelectrode
AT nakajimamasahiro microfluidicdevicetomeasurethespeedofcelegansusingtheresistancechangeoftheflexibleelectrode
AT takeuchimasaru microfluidicdevicetomeasurethespeedofcelegansusingtheresistancechangeoftheflexibleelectrode
AT najdovskizoran microfluidicdevicetomeasurethespeedofcelegansusingtheresistancechangeoftheflexibleelectrode
AT huangqiang microfluidicdevicetomeasurethespeedofcelegansusingtheresistancechangeoftheflexibleelectrode
AT fukudatoshio microfluidicdevicetomeasurethespeedofcelegansusingtheresistancechangeoftheflexibleelectrode