Department of Electronic Engineering and Information Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
Department of Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230001, China.
Nano Lett. 2022 Nov 23;22(22):8991-8999. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03232. Epub 2022 Nov 3.
Investigation of neural growth and connection is crucial in the field of neural tissue engineering. Here, using a femtosecond laser direct writing (fs-DLW) technique, we propose a directionally aligned porous microtube array as a culture system for accelerating the growth of neurons and directing the connection of neurites. These microtubes exhibited an unprecedented guidance effect toward the outgrowth of primary embryonic rat hippocampal neurons, with a wrap resembling the myelin sheaths of neurons. The speed of neurite growth inside these microtubes was significantly faster than that outside these microtubes. We also achieved selective/directing connection of neural networks inside the magnetic microtubes via precise microtube delivery to a gap between two neural clusters. This work not only proposes a powerful microtube platform for accelerated growth of neurons but also offers a new idea for constructing biological neural circuits by arranging the size, location, and pattern of microtubes.
神经生长和连接的研究在神经组织工程领域至关重要。在这里，我们使用飞秒激光直写（fs-DLW）技术，提出了一种定向排列的多孔微管阵列作为培养系统，以加速神经元的生长并引导神经突的连接。这些微管对原代大鼠海马神经元的突起表现出了前所未有的导向生长作用，其生长方式类似于神经元的髓鞘。神经突在这些微管内的生长速度明显快于微管外的生长速度。我们还通过将微管精确输送到两个神经簇之间的间隙，实现了磁性微管内神经网络的选择性/定向连接。这项工作不仅提出了一个强大的微管平台，用于加速神经元的生长，而且为通过排列微管的大小、位置和模式来构建生物神经网络提供了一个新的思路。
