Cell characterization using high frequency ultrasound

It has been previously shown that malignant cancer cells have different material properties than benign cells. Human cells exhibit extensive variability in their chemical and mechano-biological response due to donor-to-donor variability. Therefore, there is a great need for cell characterization in a high throughput fashion. In this paper, a method of cell detection and characterization based on the electrical impedance of a piezoelectric transducer as a function of cell acoustic properties is proposed. Percent impedance change from day 1 to day 14 for human adipose derived stem cells undergoing chemical induced osteogenic differentiation was twice that of human adipose derived stem cells maintained in complete growth media. The observed results were validated by a simulation model.