Influence of applied currents on the viability of cells close to microelectrodes†
Abstract
Electrodes have become more and more popular in biomedical and bioengineering applications, where they are used mostly to apply/measure potentials or currents to/from biological systems. Under such conditions, electrochemical reactions commonly occur at the electrode surface. With the aim to better describe these processes we applied constant currents using transparent indium tin oxide microelectrodes to induce a local change in pH, associated with electrolysis. The pH change was monitored optically within the first lateral 170 μm vicinity using microscopy and a pH sensitive