Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (F.O.R.T.H.), Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (I.E.S.L.) Vassilika Vouton, 70013 Heraklion, Greece.
Biomater Sci. 2021 Feb 21;9(4):1334-1344. doi: 10.1039/d0bm01218a. Epub 2020 Dec 23.
Although the peripheral nervous system exhibits a higher rate of regeneration than that of the central nervous system through a spontaneous regeneration after injury, the functional recovery is fairly infrequent and misdirected. Thus, the development of successful methods to guide neuronal outgrowth, in vitro, is of great importance. In this study, a precise flow controlled microfluidic system with specific custom-designed chambers, incorporating laser-microstructured polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates comprising microgrooves, was fabricated to assess the combined effect of shear stress and topography on Schwann cells' behavior. The microgrooves were positioned either parallel or perpendicular to the direction of the flow inside the chambers. Additionally, the cell culture results were combined with computational flow simulations to calculate accurately the shear stress values. Our results demonstrated that wall shear stress gradients may be acting either synergistically or antagonistically depending on the substrate groove orientation relative to the flow direction. The ability to control cell alignment in vitro could potentially be used in the fields of neural tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
尽管外周神经系统在受伤后通过自发再生表现出比中枢神经系统更高的再生率，但功能恢复相当罕见且容易发生偏差。因此，开发成功的方法来引导神经元在体外生长非常重要。在这项研究中，制造了一种精确的流量控制微流控系统，该系统具有特定的定制腔室，包含由微槽组成的激光微结构化聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）基底，以评估剪切应力和形貌对许旺细胞行为的综合影响。微槽的位置要么与腔室内的流动方向平行，要么垂直。此外，将细胞培养结果与计算流模拟相结合，以准确计算剪切应力值。我们的结果表明，壁面剪切应力梯度可能会协同作用或拮抗作用，这取决于基底槽相对于流动方向的方向。体外控制细胞排列的能力可能会在神经组织工程和再生医学领域得到应用。
