Roche has launched the RTCA cardio instrument, a medium-throughput cell analyser that utilises impedance readings to monitor cardiac beating and cellular events in real time.
The RTCA cardio instrument is the latest member of the Xcelligence product family.
The instrument is said to feature a unique detection rate and frequency measurement concept as well as dedicated software features.
Unlike synergistic techniques such as patch clamp, the system can be used in a fully controlled environment for continuous short-term and long-term experiments, therefore increasing the applicable experimental time as well as reproducibility and data quality.
Cardiotoxicity is one of the most relevant parameters tested in drug development.
Roche said the RTCA cardio instrument is the only 96-well, cardiotoxicity screening system on the market for continuous, real-time, label-free cardiomyocyte beating analysis.
The instrument can be used in conjunction with cardiomyocytes derived from human or mouse stem cells for assessing the cardiac safety profile of lead compounds or drug candidates during drug development.
Ruedi Stoffel, life cycle leader cellular analysis at Roche Diagnostics, said: 'There is a clear need and technology gap for cell-based analysis platforms and real-time, label-free technologies.
'The patch clamp techniques currently in use offer only a small glimpse at certain ion channels over the course of a few hours preceding cell death.
'The RTCA cardio instrument provides online beating pattern analysis for quality control and standardised conditions, as well as for short-term and long-term experiments,' Stoffel added.
The Xcelligence system provides a non-invasive, label-free way to continuously monitor cellular parameters such as viability, death, adhesion and proliferation.
The system records the electrical impedance of cells grown on microelectrode arrays integrated into the bottom of each well of an E-Plate 96.
Cell-sensor impedance is expressed as the Cell Index (CI) and changes in CI correlate to modifications in cell morphology.
Roche expects that the RTCA cardio instrument will be especially high in pharmaceuticals research, pre-clinical safety testing and analysis for cardiac research.
