Cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) adhesion are fundamental and important in the development of a cell-based chip. In this study, a novel, simple, rapid, and one-step technique was developed for the fabrication of a uniform three-dimensional mesoporous
gold thin film (MPGF) onto a
gold (Au) coated glass plate based on an electrochemical deposition method. Scanning electron microscopy images demonstrated that the resulting MPGF
electrode had uniformly distributed pores with diameters of about 20 nm. The cyclic voltammetric behavior of [Fe(CN)(6)](4-/3-) coupled onto MPGF and Au
electrodes demonstrated that the MPGF
electrode had a higher electrocatalytic sensitivity and reversibility than the bare Au
electrode. The
Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence containing the
peptide was immobilized on the MPGF and bare Au substrates. HeLa
cancer cells were then cultured on the
RGD peptide layer. The successful immobilization of the
peptide and cells was confirmed by atomic force microscopy. The cell proliferation and viability were evaluated by cyclic voltammetry and
Trypan blue dyeing assay. These results indicated that the RGD/MPGF modified
electrodes showed an electrochemical sensitivity in the detection of
cancer cells which is approximately three times higher, especially at low cell density, than RGD/Au
electrodes. This much improved sensitivity of the MPGF modified
electrode demonstrates the potential for the fabrication of a highly sensitive and low-cost cell-based chip for rapid
cancer detection.