Material stiffness effects on neurite alignment to photopolymerized micropatterns

Bradley W Tuft; Lichun Zhang; Linjing Xu; Austin Hangartner; Braden Leigh; Marlan R Hansen; C Allan Guymon

doi:10.1021/bm501019s

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Material stiffness effects on neurite alignment to photopolymerized micropatterns

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Material stiffness effects on neurite alignment to photopolymerized micropatterns

Bradley W Tuft, Lichun Zhang, Linjing Xu, Austin Hangartner, Braden Leigh, Marlan R Hansen and C Allan Guymon

Biomacromolecules, Vol.15(10), pp.3717-3727

10/13/2014

DOI: 10.1021/bm501019s

PMCID: PMC4195519

PMID: 25211120

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Abstract

The ability to direct neurite growth into a close proximity of stimulating elements of a neural prosthesis, such as a retinal or cochlear implant (CI), may enhance device performance and overcome current spatial signal resolution barriers. In this work, spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs), which are the target neurons to be stimulated by CIs, were cultured on photopolymerized micropatterns with varied matrix stiffnesses to determine the effect of rigidity on neurite alignment to physical cues. Micropatterns were generated on methacrylate thin film surfaces in a simple, rapid photopolymerization step by photomasking the prepolymer formulation with parallel line-space gratings. Two methacrylate series, a nonpolar HMA-co-HDDMA series and a polar PEGDMA-co-EGDMA series, with significantly different surface wetting properties were evaluated. Equivalent pattern periodicity was maintained across each methacrylate series based on photomask band spacing, and the feature amplitude was tuned to a depth of 2 μm amplitude for all compositions using the temporal control afforded by the UV curing methodology. The surface morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and white light interferometry. All micropatterned films adsorb similar amounts of laminin from solution, and no significant difference in SGN survival was observed when the substrate compositions were compared. SGN neurite alignment significantly increases with increasing material modulus for both methacrylate series. Interestingly, SGN neurites respond to material stiffness cues that are orders of magnitude higher (GPa) than what is typically ascribed to neural environments (kPa). The ability to understand neurite response to engineered physical cues and mechanical properties such as matrix stiffness will allow the development of advanced biomaterials that direct de novo neurite growth to address the spatial signal resolution limitations of current neural prosthetics.

Biocompatible Materials - metabolism

Animals

Tissue Engineering - methods

Surface Properties

Cells, Cultured

Polymerization

Rats

Neurites - metabolism

Neurons - metabolism

Laminin - metabolism

Spiral Ganglion - metabolism

Polymers - metabolism

Details

Title: Subtitle: Material stiffness effects on neurite alignment to photopolymerized micropatterns
Creators: Bradley W Tuft - Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Iowa , Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United States
Lichun Zhang
Linjing Xu
Austin Hangartner
Braden Leigh
Marlan R Hansen
C Allan Guymon
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Biomacromolecules, Vol.15(10), pp.3717-3727
DOI: 10.1021/bm501019s
PMID: 25211120
PMCID: PMC4195519
NLM abbreviation: Biomacromolecules
ISSN: 1525-7797
eISSN: 1526-4602
Publisher: United States
Grant note: UL1 RR024979 / NCRR NIH HHS UL1RR024979 / NCRR NIH HHS R01 DC012578 / NIDCD NIH HHS P30 DC010362 / NIDCD NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 10/13/2014
Academic Unit: Molecular Physiology and Biophysics; Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; Neurosurgery; Otolaryngology
Record Identifier: 9984006491502771

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