Cell population based toxicity assays cannot distinguish responses of single cells and sub-cellular organelles; while single cell assays are limited by low statistical power due to small number of cells examined. This article reports a new single cell array based toxicity assay, in which cell responses at population level, single cell level and sub-cellular level can be obtained simultaneously at high throughput. The single cell array was produced by microcontact printing and selected area cell attachment, and exposed to damaging X-ray radiation, which was followed by fluorescence imaging after staining. Two image processing softwares written in Python and MATLAB were used to determine the expressions of proteins associated with cell migration and invasion, and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), respectively. The results showed significant differences in responses at single cell level and distinctive molecular heterogeneity at sub-cellular level in a large population of cells upon exposure to radiation.

中文翻译：

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用于高通量亚细胞毒性测定的单细胞模式

基于细胞群的毒性测定不能区分单细胞和亚细胞细胞器的反应；而单细胞分析由于检查的细胞数量少而受到低统计能力的限制。本文报告了一种新的基于单细胞阵列的毒性测定，其中可以以高通量同时获得群体水平、单细胞水平和亚细胞水平的细胞反应。单细胞阵列是通过微接触印刷和选定区域细胞附着产生的，并暴露于破坏性的 X 射线辐射，然后在染色后进行荧光成像。使用 Python 和 MATLAB 编写的两个图像处理软件分别确定与细胞迁移和侵袭相关的蛋白质的表达以及活性氧 (ROS) 的产生。