Microfluidic device for unidirectional axon growth

2nd International School and Conference Saint-Petersburg OPEN on Optoelectronics, Photonics, Engineering and Nanostructures

Malishev, E.^1 ; Pimashkin, A.^2 ; Gladkov, A.^2,3 ; Pigareva, Y.^2 ; Bukatin, A.^1 ; Kazantsev, V.^2 ; Mukhina, I.^2,3 ; Dubina, M.^1

Saint-Petersburg Academic University, Nanotechnology Research and Education Centre of the RAS, Saint-Petersburg, Russia^1

N.I. Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod - Neurocenter, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia^2

Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia^3

关键词: Electrical activities;    Hippocampal culture;    Micro-fluidic devices;    Microelectrode array;    Microfluidic chip;    Polydimethylsiloxane PDMS;    Spike propagation;    Visual inspection;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/643/1/012025/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/643/1/012025

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

In order to better understand the communication and connectivity development of neuron networks, we designed microfluidic devices with several chambers for growing dissociated neuronal cultures from mice fetal hippocampus (E18). The chambers were connected with microchannels providing unidirectional axonal growth between "Source" and "Target" neural sub-networks. Experiments were performed in a hippocampal cultures plated in a poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic chip, aligned with a 60 microelectrode array (MEA). Axonal growth through microchannels was observed with brightfield, phase-contrast and fluorescence microscopy, and after 7 days in vitro electrical activity was recorded. Visual inspection and spike propagation analysis showed the predominant axonal growth in microchannels in a direction from "Source" to "Target".