Extracellular potential measuring device and its manufacturing method

Abstract

An extracellular potential measuring device includes a plate portion having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface, and an electrode provided on the second surface of the plate portion. In the plate portion, a pocket having an opening which opens to the first surface is formed, and a through-hole communicating to the second surface from the pocket. The through-hole communicates from a position which is closer to the opening than a deepest point of the first pocket. The electrode is provided around of the opening of the through-hole. In this device, even if a cell to be examined does not reach the deepest point of the pocket, a cell membrane of the cell can tightly attaches onto the through-hole securely without a clearance. Hence, culture solution inside the through-hole is isolated from culture solution over an upper surface of the plate portion, thereby allowing electrochemical changes caused by activities of the cell to be detected efficiently with a detector electrode.

Description

technical field The present invention relates to an extracellular potential measuring device used for measuring extracellular potential or physicochemical changes generated in the activity of cells and its manufacturing method, for example, for the identification of drugs for detecting reactions produced by cells by chemical substances . Background technique At present, when developing new drugs, the electrical activity of cells is used as an indicator to identify candidate drugs through the patch-clamp method using fluorescent dyes or luminescent indicators. In this patch clamp method, using a micropipette, the transport of ions through a single channel protein molecule attached to the tip portion of a micropipette on a tiny portion of a fragment called a cell membrane is recorded electrically. This method is one of the few methods that can study the function of a protein molecule in real time (for example, "Molecular Biology of the Cell Third Edition", Garland Publishing...

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Problems solved by technology

In addition, since the dehydration etching is performed separately using two masks, the current device 49 is laborious to manufacture and leads to an increase in cost