Direct monitoring of paraquat induced cell death using quartz crystal sensor

Paraquat, a nonselective herbicide and pesticide, has been implicated as an environmental toxicity which caused cell death. In order to investigate the influence of paraquat, we used a quartz crystal sensor with a micro CCD camera that measured morphology and resonance characteristics simultaneously. Human hepatoma cell line (HepG2) was cultured onto an indium tin oxide (ITO) surface of quartz crystal modified on a collagen film. After the growth of the cells, paraquat was injected to the chamber and the resonance responses of the quartz crystal were directly monitored with morphology. We analyzed changes of the cells by the resonance frequency (F) and the resonance resistance (R) responses (F-R diagram). With this analysis, we also observed the morphologies during cell culturing. From the data, we could know that paraquat caused the weakening and death of the cells. Namely, paraquat plays an important role in the free radicals production that led to apoptosis and cell death.