New E-Plate Insert for Analysis of Cell-Cell Interactions using the Roche xCELLigence System

Roche Applied Science is pleased to announce the launch of the new E-Plate insert for cell-cell interactions. This is based on research suggesting that the co-cultivation of two different cell types is an important way to investigate cell-cell interactions and communication.

Co-cultivation can be used in a wide variety of applications, including cell signalling and toxicology testing. A key goal in drug discovery is to identify how to most effectively monitor cell-cell interactions when cells show pathology. Roche Applied Science is now providing the new E-Plate Insert 16 and E-Plate Insert 96, permitting continual impedance-based monitoring of indirect cell-cell interactions/communication using xCELLigence Instruments.

In a recent study at the INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier (Laval, Quebec, Canada) the E-Plate Insert had been used to test the behaviour of BeWo human placental choriocarcinoma cells in co-culture with H295R human adrenocortical carcinoma cells. “Using the E-Plate Insert in our co-culture experiments requires fewer manipulations and allows us to perform several experiments simultaneously - hormone measurements, signalling pathway analysis, real-time monitoring of biochemical and morphological differentiation of the cells,” summarized Prof. Thomas Sanderson and Prof. Cathy Vaillancourt, who are co-investigators on this project and co-supervisors of Andrée-Anne Hudon Thibeault, the Masters student who realised the study.

The Canadian group plans to use the unique abilities of the co-culture-compatible E-Plate Insert and xCELLigence cell response monitoring technology, to determine the effect of co-culture on primary villous trophoblast homeostasis (polarization, differentiation/syncytialization, fusion, apoptosis) and on H295R cells (proliferation, viability, apoptosis) as well as expression and activity levels of key placental and fetal adrenal steroidogenic enzymes.

The membrane-containing E-Plate Inserts enable sensitive, reproducible measurement of indirect cell-to-cell interactions in real-time, and in a label-free environment using the xCELLigence Instruments (RTCA DP, SP, and MP Analyzers). Combined with microscopy-compatible E-Plates VIEW, E-Plate Inserts 16 and 96 are available for low to high throughput applications. Impedance-based measurements are particularly advantageous when co-culturing cells for pinpointing when and how cells respond to each other, thus identifying the best time points for further experiments.

For more information please view the company website.