Metabolic profiling of pancreatic islets via scanning electrochemical microscopy

AEI 10

Jeremy P. Wilburn, jeremy.wilburn@vanderbilt.edu, Mădălina Ciobanu, madalina.ciobanu@vanderbilt.edu, and David E. Cliffel, d.cliffel@vanderbilt.edu. Department of Chemistry, Vanderbilt University, 7330 Stevenson Center, VU Station B1822, Nashville, TN 37235
The lack of non-invasive techniques suitable for probing the metabolic activities of individual living cells has been a limiting factor in the advancement of biological studies. Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), a non-invasive variant of scanning probe microscopy, has been recently applied toward these types of analyses, such as with the metabolic profiling of live cultured cells and also to in vitro analyses of larger organisms such as bovine embryos. We have applied this technique in preliminary studies to probe the metabolism of individual cultured pancreatic islets, including respiratory activity and glucose-mediated insulin release through the direct electrochemical reduction of insulin. The data generated in these studies may prove useful in the viability screening of human islets destined for transplantation to treat diabetes mellitus.