Alternative general fitting methods for real-time cell-count experimental data processing

This paper reports two general methods for extraction of cell-electrode electrical model parameters in cell culture (CC) assays. The presented approaches can be applied to CC assays based on electrical cell-substrate impedance spectroscopy (ECIS) technique for real-time supervision, providing the cell number per square centimeter, i.e., the cell density, as main result. Both of the proposed methods - minimization of system equations and data predictive model - search, during the experiment, the optimum values of the electrical model parameters employed for the electrode-cell model. The results of this search enable a fast and efficient calculation of the involved cell-electrode model parameters and supply real-time information on the cell number. For the sake of experimental validation, we applied the proposed methods to practical CCs in cell growth assays with a cell line of AA8 Chinese hamster ovarian fibroblasts and the Oscillation Based Test technique for bioimpedance measurements. These methods can be easily extrapolated to any general cell lines and/or other bioimpedance test methodologies.