MONITORING OF CELLULAR SIGNALING AND METABOLISM WITH MODULAR SENSOR-TECHNIQUE - THE PHYSIOCONTROL-MICROSYSTEM (PCM(R))

Microsensors provide instruments particularly suited for the noninvasi ve analysis of cell and tissue cultures. The outstanding benefit lies in the passive behaviour of continuously working transducers, which in turn allows the dynamic recording of function-specific cellular proce sses. The microsensor system presented in this paper is a modular arra ngement of various planar and nonplanar sensor elements surrounding sm all cell culture chambers. An optic access to the cultures (e.g. for h igh resolution light microscopy and spectro-photometric techniques) en ables a parallel and comparative data acquisition. The system was orig inally designed for biomedical research in chemotherapy and pharmacolo gy but it proved to be an effective device both for toxicological and environmental research. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights rese rved.