Extracellular Bioelectrical Lexicon: Detecting Rhythmic Patterns within Dermal Fibroblast Populations

Abstract

Abstract There is growing awareness of the potential role of bioelectrical signals in the fields of cell and tissue physiology. The present study demonstrates that the electrophysiology of populations of non-electrogenic cells in vitro provides reliable information about their status. Non-electrogenic cells synchronize their activity and generate well-defined patterns of bioelectrical signals and the frequency and amplitude of the bioelectrical patterns are strongly dependent on cell activity. Healthy and compact cell monolayers have residual bioelectrical activity. Cells forming or repairing a damaged monolayer generate a diverse range of signal bursts, consisting of quasi-periodic signals in the ultra-low frequency range down to 0.17 mHz (96 minutes). The study contributes a lexicon of bioelectrical signals linked to cell states for short-range non humoral communication and is of relevance for the development of medical devices.