Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Acta Biomater. 2013 Aug;9(8):7622-9. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2013.04.048. Epub 2013 May 3.
The central nervous system consists of complex groups of individual cells that receive electrical, chemical and physical signals from their local environment. Standard in vitro cell culture methods rely on two-dimensional (2-D) substrates that poorly simulate in vivo neural architecture. Neural cells grown in three-dimensional (3-D) culture systems may provide an opportunity to study more accurate representations of the in vivo environment than 2-D cultures. Furthermore, each specific type of neuron depends on discrete compositions and physical properties of their local environment. Previously, we developed a library of hydrogels composed of poly(ethylene glycol) and poly(l-lysine) which exhibit a wide range of mechanical properties. Here, we identified specific scaffolds from this library that readily support the survival, migration and neurite outgrowth of purified retinal ganglion cells and amacrine cells. These data address important biological questions about the interaction of neurons with the physical and chemical properties of their local environment and provide further insight for engineering neural tissue for cell-replacement therapies following injury.
中枢神经系统由复杂的单个细胞群组成，这些细胞从其局部环境中接收电、化学和物理信号。标准的体外细胞培养方法依赖于二维（2-D）底物，这些底物很难模拟体内神经结构。在三维（3-D）培养系统中生长的神经细胞可能为研究比 2-D 培养更准确的体内环境提供机会。此外，每种特定类型的神经元都依赖于其局部环境的离散组成和物理特性。此前，我们开发了一个由聚乙二醇和聚赖氨酸组成的水凝胶文库，该文库具有广泛的机械性能。在这里，我们从该文库中鉴定出特定的支架，这些支架能够很好地支持纯化的视网膜神经节细胞和无长突细胞的存活、迁移和突起生长。这些数据解决了关于神经元与局部环境的物理和化学特性相互作用的重要生物学问题，并为损伤后用于细胞替代疗法的神经组织工程提供了进一步的见解。
