Carbon nanotube micropillars trigger guided growth of complex human neural stem cells networks

Abstract

New strategies for spatially controlled growth of human neurons may provide viable solutions to treat and recover peripheral or spinal cord injuries. While topography cues are known to promote attachment and direct proliferation of many cell types, guided outgrowth of human neurites has been found difficult to achieve so far. Here, three-dimensional (3D) micropatterned carbon nanotube (CNT) templates are used to effectively direct human neurite stem cell growth. By exploiting the mechanical flexibility, electrically conductivity and texture of the 3D CNT micropillars, a perfect environment is created to achieve specific guidance of human neurites, which may lead to enhanced therapeutic effects within the injured spinal cord or peripheral nerves. It is found that the 3D CNT micropillars grant excellent anchoring for adjacent neurites to form seamless neuronal networks that can be grown to any arbitrary shape and size. Apart from clear practical relevance in regenerative medicine, these results using the CNT based templates on Si chips also can pave the road for new types of microelectrode arrays to study cell network electrophysiology.

Description
Advisor
Degree
Type
Journal article
Keywords
Citation

Lorite, Gabriela S., Ylä-Outinen, Laura, Janssen, Lauriane, et al.. "Carbon nanotube micropillars trigger guided growth of complex human neural stem cells networks." Nano Research, 12, (2019) Springer: 2894-2899. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2533-2.

Has part(s)
Forms part of
Rights
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Citable link to this page