Static and dynamic 3D culture of neural precursor cells on macroporous cryogel microcarriers

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Neural precursor cells have been much studied to further our understanding of the far-reaching and controversial question of adult neurogenesis. Currently, differentiation of primary neural precursor cells from the mouse dentate gyrus via 2-dimentional in vitro culture yields low numbers of neurons, a major hindrance to the field of study. 3-dimentional “neurosphere” culture allows better 3D cell-cell contact, but control over cell differentiation is poor because nutrition and oxygen restrictions at the core of the sphere causes spontaneous differentiation, predominantly to glial cells, not neurons. Our group has developed macroporous scaffolds, which overcome the above-mentioned problems, allowing long-term culture of neural stem cells, which can be differentiated into a much higher yield of neurons. Herein we describe a method for culturing neural precursor cells on RGD peptide functionalized-heparin containing cryogel scaffolds, either in standard non-adherent well-plates (static culture) or in spinner flasks (dynamic culture). This method includes: • The synthesis and characterization of heparin based microcarriers. • A “static” 3D culture method for that does not require spinner flask equipment. • “Dynamic” culture in which cell loaded microcarriers are transferred to a spinner flask.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number100805
JournalMethodsX
Volume7
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-5304-4061/work/142238799
ORCID /0000-0003-4820-0979/work/146167331
ORCID /0000-0003-0189-3448/work/159607183

Keywords

Keywords

  • 3D culture of neural precursor cells on macroporous cryogel microcarriers, Biomaterials for cell culture, Cell survival, Dentate gyrus, Heparin, Neural progenitor differentiation, Scaffolds

Library keywords