CEREBRAL NEURONS, SKELETAL MYOBLASTS, AND CARDIAC-MUSCLE-CELLS CULTURED ON MACROPOROUS BEADS

Biodegradable macroporous spherical microcarriers (MCs) offer a suitab le substrate for adhesion, growth, and differentiation of cerebral neu rons, skeletal myoblasts, and cardiac cells. The cavernous structure o f these gelatin beads supplies a large surface and a tridimensional ha bitat for cell propagation. Within hours from their seeding, all three cell types became firmly attached to the MCs, forming cell-MC aggrega tes, which remained floating in the medium. Neuronal aggregates were c omposed mainly of single or groups of perikarya, and their sprouted ne rve processes formed a ramified network. In skeletal muscle aggregates , of myoblasts into myotubes occured fusion 5 days. The myotubes, arra nged in bundles having the same orientation, became striated and the w hole aggregate, or parts of it, contracted spontaneously. Cardiac cell s divided in the aggregate to form one or more layers of flat cells, w hich exhibited single microvilli. The cells were interconnected at une ven intervals and the whole aggregate contracted actively. Morphologic al and biochemical analysis of sampled aggregates ensured that cells r eached the proper stage of maturation and could be used for either phy siological and pharmacological studies or implantation into injured or dystrophic tissue. (C) 1994 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.