Background
In today's society, almost no scientific technology has been developed and applied without the support of sensors and signal detection technology. The detectors with different functions are used as windows for sensing, capturing and detecting information and play an extremely important role in a signal detection and information processing system. New changes in the form and content of sensors are also taking place in response to the increasing and complex real world demands. Many new sensors, such as optical fiber sensors, Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs), infrared sensors, remote control sensors, microwave sensors, superconductor sensors, liquid crystal sensors, and biomimetic sensors, have been developed, and their appearance in turn has greatly promoted the rapid development of information technology. In particular, simulation of biological functions has attracted considerable attention in recent years. Wherein the bionic sensor is one of the embodiments.
The current bionic sensor mainly adopts immobilized cells, enzymes or other bioactive substances to be matched with a transducer to form the sensor. The sensor is a novel information technology developed in the way of mutual infiltration of biomedicine, electronics and engineering in recent years. Its advantages are high performance and long service life. Among the biomimetic sensors, a bio-analog sensor is more commonly used. According to the media used, there can be classified: enzyme sensors, microbial sensors, cell sensors, tissue sensors, and the like. Usually, a bionic sensor can only be used for detecting a physical quantity, but in many application fields, in order to perfectly and accurately reflect objective objects and environments, a large number of physical quantities are often required to be measured simultaneously, and a multifunctional sensor is undoubtedly a completely new research direction in the current sensor technology development.
However, the multifunctional cell sensor has not been widely regarded and applied so far, and in fact, the cell membrane of the biological cell has a complicated fine structure and various unique functions. Besides being a mechanical and chemical barrier for biological cells, it also has a series of important functions such as material exchange between the inside and outside of biological cells, cell movement, cell recognition, and growth regulation of cells, immune determination, and formation of various surface receptors. An important feature of cell membranes is their ability to act as sensors for receiving external signals, which allow the cells to respond appropriately to environmental changes (Song-Dan eds., medical cytobiology, Beijing: Renminbi Press, 1997). The external signal may be heat, force, electricity, magnetism, light, sound, radiation, etc., to which the cell membrane is abnormally sensitive.
Therefore, there is a need for a cell sensor that can detect various physical quantities by utilizing the sensitivity of cell membranes to various external signals.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.
Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a cell sensor provided in the present invention. The cell membrane 2 used as the sensing element of the sensor is spherical shell-shaped, the cell membrane 2 surrounds a first cavity 18, the cell membrane 2 can be an artificial cell membrane made of ethyl ethylene and ethylene oxide, other types of artificial thin films such as a polytetrafluoroethylene ventilated membrane can be selected, and a real cell membrane such as an egg membrane can also be selected. The casing 20 is a spherical casing slightly larger than the diameter of the cell membrane, and is a hollow casing or a porous casing made of an elastic material such as plastic or rubber. A second cavity 21 is defined between the cell membrane 2 and the housing 20. The diameter of the sensor shown in fig. 1 can range from a few micrometers to a few centimeters, wherein the thickness of the cell membrane 2 can be between 1 μm and 1 cm. The positional relationship between the cell membrane 2 and the housing 20 is determined in this embodiment by the cell membrane 2 and the housing 20 being connected to the hollow pipe 1, respectively, as will be described in detail later, but it is understood that the position between the cell membrane 2 and the housing 20 may be determined in any other suitable manner.
Although a spherical cavity is used for both the cell membrane 2 and the housing 20 in fig. 1, other cavities such as a rectangular hollow body, a cylindrical hollow body, or other regular and irregular shaped cavities are also suitable for the present invention.
In fig. 1, a plurality of symmetrically distributed scaffolds 10 are provided inside the cell membrane 2 for supporting the cell membrane 2 and fixing the shape of the cell membrane 2 in a spherical shape. However, in practical applications, the number and distribution of the plurality of scaffolds 10 can be flexibly set according to requirements, and the cell membrane 2 can be fixed into a cylinder, a rectangular parallelepiped or other required shapes according to requirements. The support 10 is made of an insulating material such as plastic, rubber, synthetic material, etc.
The cell sensor of the present invention utilizes the sensitivity of the cell membrane 2 to the external signal to realize the detection of the physical quantity, and the detection element for detecting the physical quantity is arranged in the first cavity 18 or the second cavity 21 as required, or simultaneously arranged in the first cavity 18 and the second cavity 21.
In fig. 1 and 2, the sensor of the invention comprises a plurality of detection elements comprising an intra-membrane measurement electrode arranged in a first cavity 18 within the cell membrane 2: a temperature measuring electrode 4 for detecting temperature, an electric field measuring electrode 3 for detecting electric field intensity, and an ion concentration measuring electrode 12 for detecting ion concentration in solution. For use with the previously described in-membrane measuring electrodes 3, 4 and 12, an out-of-membrane measuring electrode 8 is correspondingly provided outside the cell membrane 2. The number of the extra-membrane measuring electrodes 8 can be only one or a plurality of measuring electrodes can be arranged so as to be matched with a plurality of intra-membrane measuring electrodes for use. As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the intramembrane measurement electrodes 3, 4 and 12 may be embedded in different stents 10, respectively, with one end of the electrode exposed from the end of the stent 10 and closely attached to the cell membrane 2.
It should be understood that although the intra-membrane measurement electrodes are herein divided into temperature measurement electrodes 4, electric field measurement electrodes 3 and ion concentration electrodes 12 according to their use, these electrodes are all of the same construction, their use is interchangeable, and even these electrodes may be used for the same use. That is, one intra-film measurement electrode may be used to measure one physical quantity, or one electrode may be used to measure several physical quantities simultaneously, for example, the temperature measurement electrode 4 and the ion concentration measurement electrode 12 may share one electrode, or several intra-film measurement electrodes may be used to measure the same physical quantity simultaneously, so as to improve reliability, or an average value of multiple points may be used as a final measurement value. The in- film measuring electrodes 3, 4, 12 and the out-of-film measuring electrode 8 may employ silver electrodes, platinum electrodes, or copper electrodes.
As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the intramembranous measurement electrodes 3, 4, 12, respectively, are preferably embedded within a stent 10, and these electrodes are exposed to contact the cell membrane 2 where the stent 10 is attached to the cell membrane 2.
In fig. 1 and 2, in order to realize the measurement of the oxygen concentration in the solution, the sensor of the present invention is further provided with a silver anode 5 and a platinum cathode 6 as detecting elements, in particular. The platinum cathode 6 is embedded in the holder in the same way as the in- film measuring electrodes 3, 4, 12, while the silver anode 5 is wound around the outer surface of the holder where the platinum cathode 6 is located. In this case, the casing 20 should be a porous case to facilitate oxygen permeation to be detected.
In fig. 1 and 2, in order to achieve the measurement of the pressure, the sensor of the present invention further provides a fiber bundle 7 as a detecting element. The optical fiber bundle 7 is also embedded in a holder 10, and the light receiving surface of the optical fiber bundle 7 faces and is closely attached to the cell membrane 2. The bundle 7 is made up of a receiving bundle 15 and a transmitting bundle 16, as can be seen more clearly in fig. 3.
As shown in fig. 1 and 2, in order to connect the various detecting elements inside the sensor with a signal receiving and measuring device (not shown) outside the sensor, the sensor according to the invention provides a hollow tube 1, which tube 1 extends through the housing 20 and the cell membrane 2 into the first cavity 18. As shown in fig. 3, electrode leads 14 of the temperature measuring electrode 4, the electric field measuring electrode 3, the ion concentration measuring electrode 12, the silver anode 5, the platinum cathode 6 and the membrane outside measuring electrode 8 extend to the outside of the sensor through the hollow pipe 1 so as to be connected with an electrical device (not shown) outside the sensor. The receiving optical fiber bundle 15 and the transmitting optical fiber bundle 16 also extend to the outside of the sensor through the hollow pipe 1, and are respectively connected with a light detector (not shown) and an input light source (not shown). In addition, the relative position of the cell membrane 2 and the shell 20 can also be fixed through the hollow pipeline 1, the hollow pipeline 1 can be adjusted to enable the cell membrane 2 and the shell 20 to be concentric spheres, and the hollow pipeline 1, the cell membrane 2 and the shell 20 are respectively bonded and fixed at the connecting positions of the hollow pipeline 1, the cell membrane 2 and the shell 20.
The sensor of the present invention needs to inject different solutions into the first cavity 18 and the second cavity 21 when measuring some physical quantities, so as to form different environments on both sides of the cell membrane 2. As shown in fig. 1, the housing 20 is provided with a solution inlet/outlet 22 for injecting a solution, generally a solution to be tested, into the second chamber 21. As can be seen in figure 3, the hollow pipe 1 is also provided with an inlet/outlet pipe 19 extending in the same direction as the hollow pipe, so as to introduce into the first chamber 18 a solution, generally a reference solution, for example a 0.5Mol/L KCl solution, but also other electrolytic solutions, and optionally the cytoplasm of normal cells.
As shown in fig. 4, in order to increase the specific surface area of the cell membrane 2, a plurality of extended surfaces 17 of a corrugated structure may be provided on the surface thereof to improve the sensitivity and response speed of the sensor. These corrugations function like fins in a heat exchanger. The extension surface 17 is made of the same material as the cell membrane 2, may be a regular cylinder or a rectangular parallelepiped or an irregular shape, and is formed integrally with the cell membrane 2.
In addition, the sensor of the present invention further provides a backup electrode 11 to perform measurement of other physical quantities according to other properties of the cell membrane 2, extending the function of the sensor.
The cell sensor of the utility model can be processed by adopting the following steps:
(1) firstly, 6-100 silver or platinum or copper wires are intercepted to be used as various intra-membrane measuring electrodes.
(2) Plastic, rubber or composite materials are poured outside the silver or platinum or copper wires to form a plurality of brackets 10, wherein the electrode in one bracket 10 is platinum as a platinum cathode 6, and the optical fibers are embedded in the other bracket according to a certain rule as a receiving optical fiber bundle 15 and a transmitting optical fiber bundle 16.
(3) Silver wires are wound outside the stent embedded with the platinum cathode 6 to serve as silver anodes 5.
(4) An inlet/outlet pipe 19 is inserted into the center of the lead hole 1.
(5) The respective holders 10 are adhesively fixed in accordance with the designed sensor shape so that their tip envelopes become spherical, and the lead wires 14 of the respective electrodes and the receiving optical fiber bundles 15 and the transmitting optical fiber bundles 16 are inserted into the lead holes 1 in accordance with a certain spatial distribution.
(6) The envelope is provided with relatively dense electrodes and then immersed in water to freeze into ice cubes. The ice is trimmed to form a sphere, and the radius of the ice sphere is smaller than the length of the stent 10, so as toensure that the membrane measuring electrodes in each stent 10 can tightly adhere to the inner surface of the cell membrane 2 after the cell membrane 2 is formed. The polymer prepared from ethyl ethylene and ethylene oxide is coated on the ice ball and soaked in sugar solution, then the electrode current direction on the envelope surface is rapidly changed, so that polymer molecules with trace charges form a bilayer in the direction away from the electrode on the envelope surface, and finally the polymer molecules are disconnected with the ice ball to form a cell membrane 2. And after the ice ball is melted, drawing out the electrodes which are arranged on the envelope surface in advance. If the extended surface 17 is required to be manufactured, the same electrode can be arranged on the outer side of the cell membrane 2, and the extended surface 17 can be manufactured by using the same principle, if the extended surface 17 is not required, the manufactured material can also be selected from other compounds.
(7) After the spherical sensor is formed, 1-100 membrane external electrodes 8 are bonded on the outer wall surface, the electrode material can be silver or platinum or copper wire, and a corrosion-resistant metal material is recommended.
(8) The housing 20 is made of non-metal materials such as plastic and rubber, and has a spherical cavity, a rectangular cavity or other regular or irregular shape.
(9) If a micro sensor array is to be made, multiple sensors can be packaged on the same chip using MEMS technology, and such a micro sensor array can be used to measure the spatial distribution of individual physical quantities.
The cell sensor of the utility model can utilize different characteristics of the cell membrane 2 expressed under different excitation conditions to realize the measurement of various physical quantities. The utility model discloses the measurement physical quantity that realizes is not limited to the measurement to temperature, pressure, electric field strength, oxygen and various ion concentration yet, for the simplicity, only explains as an example with measuring above-mentioned physical quantity as follows the utility model discloses a cell sensor's measurement principle.
1) Temperature measurement
The temperature measurement utilizes the temperature dependence of the resistance of the cell membrane 2 to convert the measured non-electricity into electricity, and the temperature measuring electrode 4 and the extramembranous measuring electrode 8 are used for detecting the resistance of the cell membrane 2 so as to detect the temperature of the medium around the cell membrane 2. For example, the simplest resistance versus temperature relationship that can be used is:
R=R0+ α T wherein R0The actual resistance R of the cell membrane 2 as a function of temperature may be much more complex than the above equation, and the relationship of resistance as a function of temperature for different cell membranes may be different, but may be pre-calibrated for a particular cell membrane.
2) Pressure measurement
When the cell membrane 2 is subjected to pressure, its light scattering properties change. The optical fiber bundle 7 is used for transmitting light in and out, the transmitting optical fiber bundle 16 transmits incident light to the inner surface of the cell membrane 2, and the receiving optical fiber bundle 15 transmits the light on the inner surface of the cell membrane 2 to a detector outside the sensor. If the power of the input light source is constant, the light flux of the reflected light changes after the cell membrane 2 is pressed, that is, the pressure is represented by the intensity of the reflected light, so different magnitudes ofthe reflected light reflect different stress degrees. The reflected light is received by the photodetector and transduced again to obtain the corresponding voltage or current output.
3) Electric field strength measurement
The electric field intensity measurement is to measure the electric potential on both sides of the cell membrane 2 by using the electric field measuring electrode 3 and the extramembranous measuring electrode 8 to calculate the intensity of the surrounding electric field. The cell membrane plays an important role when the electromagnetic field is incident on the tissue cells, and a lot of documents have studied the problem and give a peak value V of the potential on the cell membranemExact theoretical solution
Wherein δ is a time constant expressed as
Here, r0Is the radius of the cell; rho2Is the resistivity of the surrounding material; rho4Is the resistivity of the intracellular material; cmCapacitance in square centimeters of cell membrane, and E is the measured electric field. When the above-mentioned physical properties of the cell membrane 2 and the surrounding medium are known, the electric field measuring electrode 3 and the outside of the membrane are usedThe electrode 8 measures the peak potential V on the cell membrane 2mAnd obtaining the measured electric field E:
if the measured electric field is an electrostatic field, the theoretical solution of the potential accuracy on both sides of the cell membrane 2 is simplified to
Vm=1.5Er0
The measured electric field E is correspondingly determined by the following equation:
4) measurement of oxygen concentration in solution
With the development of life science, more and more scholars at home and abroad are interested in oxygen parameters participating in physiological activities, and hope to realize continuous and tracking monitoring of living micro-areas is achieved. Polarographic diaphragm type oxygen electrodes are widely applied to various fields of life science due to the characteristics of high quality and low price. The platinum electrode and the Ag/AgCl electrode are both put in a reference solution and separated from a solution to be measured by an oxygen permeable membrane. Oxygen in the solution to be detected is diffused into the electrolyte thin layer in the membrane through the oxygen permeable membrane and then diffused to the surface of the platinum electrode for electrolytic reductionGenerating a current. In the cell sensor of the present invention, the first chamber 18 is filled with, for example, 0.5Mol/L KCl electrolyte, and the second chamber 21 is filled with the solution to be measured. Applying a polarizing voltage E between the silver anode 5 and the platinum cathode 6jDuring the process, oxygen in the solution to be detected permeates the cell membrane 2 sensitive to oxygen, electrolytic reduction is carried out on the platinum cathode 6 to generate current, the magnitude of the current is in direct proportion to the concentration of oxygen, and the reaction process is as follows:
silver anode 5:
the oxygen concentration in the solution to be measured can be obtained by passing a current through the
silver anode 5 and the
platinum cathode 6.
5) Ion concentration measurement in solution
The first chamber 18 is filled with a reference solution and the second chamber 21 is filled with a solution to be measured. When the exchange and diffusion on the cell membrane 2 as a phase interface reach equilibrium, the resting membrane potential of the cell membrane 2 can be expressed as
Wherein R is the universal gas constant (═ 8.31J/mol.k); t is*Absolute temperature (K) of cell membrane 2; n is the ionic valence; f is the faraday constant (═ 9.65 × 10)4C·mol-1);c1And c2The ion concentrations of the reference solution and the measured solution are respectively on both sides of the cell membrane 2. The ion concentration measuring electrode 12 and one of the membrane outer electrodes 8 in the cell sensor of the utility model measure the two sides of the cell membrane due to ion migrationThe potential change caused by the shift can obtain the ion concentration in the tested solution according to the relational expression.