Spontaneous Cell Detachment from Temperature Gradients: Getting the Method Ready for Antimicrobial Drug Testing at Cell Culture Level

Spontaneous cell detachment describes an effect in which eukaryotic cells first sediment onto a heated chip and then detach from it spontaneously and collectively after a sharply defined dwell time <i>t_d</i>. This behavior is triggered by the temperature gradient between the chip and the colder supernatant liquid. Notably, <i>t_d</i> allows distinguishing between different yeast strains and cancer-cell lines. At the same time, it also varies in the presence of nutrients and cytotoxins, suggesting an added value of this method for pharmacological studies. In the present work, we study the role of fluid convection on the detachment of yeast cells experimentally and by simulations using a sample compartment with a variable aspect ratio. Hereby, we found that the absolute chip temperature, the strength of the temperature gradient and the number of cells inside the sample compartment all affect the dwell time <i>t_d</i>. To demonstrate the concept, we show that the spontaneous-detachment method can measure the impact of an antibiotic and an antiseptic drug on yeast cultures and corroborate this with reference assays.