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Laboratory equipment designed to measure the impedance spectrum of cells in vitro, which can monitor certain cell properties and behaviors such as barrier integrity, cell adhesion, cell proliferation, and/or cell migration. Impedance-based cell monitoring systems assess cellular monolayers cultured either in dedicated culture dishes that have multiple electrodes embedded in their base or on semi-permeable membrane inserts in microplate wells. The systems apply an AC voltage with a variable frequency and measure the amplitude and phase of the resulting AC current, which is influenced by the total impedance of the cellular system consisting mainly of the cell layer resistance; cell layer capacitance; resistance of the cell culture medium, and capacitance of the electrodes. Contributions of these components to the total impedance varies with the frequency of the applied AC voltage and, therefore, allows these impedance spectroscopy systems to isolate individual components of the total capacitance, which reflect various biological features of the cultured cell layers.
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