Introduction. Amperometry is arguably the most widely used technique for studying the exocytosis of biological amines, allowing the study of the dynamics and kinetics of this cellular mechanism in real time. In recent decades, multielectrode array (MEA) devices have been developed and increase the efficiency and speed of amperometric measurements.
Platelets are the most accessible cells to study the exocytosis of amines as they have90% of blood serotonin included in their granules, which is avidly uptaken from the blood and released by exocytosis. Furthermore, platelets are not able to synthesize this amine.
Methods. We have optimized boron-doped diamond (BDD) MEA systems that allow the detection of amperometric recordings from the quantum release of serotonin from human platelets. With this technique, exocytotic release phenomena are recorded as a succession of discrete signals in the form of peaks that result from electric current intensities measured during the oxidation of the released serotonin.
Our initial results were carried out with 16 microelectrode devices on silicone matrices (BDD-on-silicon MEA)1. In this conference, we present transparent MEA devices with 16 microelectrodes that allow microscopy observation too: BDD-on-quartz MEA.
Results. BDD-on-quartz MEA devices exhibit the same excellent electrochemical properties as BDD-on-silicon MEA1: We present a comparative study of quantum and kinetics data obtained with both MEA chips from unloaded platelets and after loading the platelets with 10 µM serotonin for 2 h. And finally, we show examples of the different types of peaks detected.
Conclusions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of BDD-on-quartz MEA devices foramperometrical studies of serotonin exocytosis from human platelets.
References. 1 González Brito, R; Montenegro, P; Méndez, A; Carabelli, V; Tomagra, G; Shabgahi, R.E.; Pasquarelli, A.; Borges, R. Multielectrode Arrays as a Means to Study Exocytosis in Human Platelets. Biosensors 2023, 13, 86. https://doi.org/10.3390/bios13010086.
