Theoretical and experimental study of the role of cell-cell dipole interaction in dielectrophoretic devices: application to polynomial electrodes

Background: We aimed to investigate the effect of cell-cell dipole interactions in the equilibrium distributions in dielectrophoretic devices. Methods: We used a three dimensional coupled Monte Carlo-Poisson method to theoretically study the final distribution of a system of uncharged polarizable particles suspended in a static liquid medium under the action of an oscillating non-uniform electric field generated by polynomial electrodes. The simulated distributions have been compared with experimental ones observed in the case of MDA-MB-231 cells in the same operating conditions. Results: The real and simulated distributions are consistent. In both cases the cells distribution near the electrodes is dominated by cell-cell dipole interactions which generate long chains. Conclusions: The agreement between real and simulated cells' distributions demonstrate the method's reliability. The distribution are dominated by cell-cell dipole interactions even at low density regimes (105 cell/ml). An improved estimate for the density threshold governing the interaction free regime is suggested.