A real-time monitoring system for adherently grown cells

AbstractWe present a real-time, compact and low-cost imaging system for cell cultures grown attached in standard disposable multi-well plates. The system comprises a custom made platform to position a standard multi-well plate and a 1/4” CCD image sensor aligned, fixed and focused directly at the bottom of the well of interest. The image sensor has a resolution of 640×480 pixels. With a lens mounted on top of the CCD sensor we obtained a 3.26×2.45 mm2 field of view, corresponding to a pixel size of about 5 μm. With our imaging system we have successfully observed adherent epithelial cells (A549): individually, in spheroid shaped cluster, and in a wound healing assay