Assessment of the dielectric properties of drug sensitive and resistant leukaemic cells before and after ion channel blockers using dielectroplioresis

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a phenomenon of induced particle motion in non-uniform electric fields. The effect is frequency dependent; by monitoring the motion of particles in AC fields and analysing the change in motion with frequency, it is possible to determine the electrical properties of single cells in lab-on-a-chip systems. In this paper we use DEP to study the electrical properties of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cancer cells before and after treatment with ion channel blocking agents, which give insight into the origin of cytoplasmic differences shown to have a significant bearing on the origin of drug resistance in cancer