A BIOCOMPATIBLE INTERFACE FOR THE GEOMETRICAL GUIDANCE OF CENTRAL NEURONS IN-VITRO

Biocompatibility of solid surfaces has become an important concern for interfacing living neurons and designing their circuit geometries in vitro. In this paper, we report on the use of chemically and geometric ally modified substrates for the growth of central nervous system neur ons in culture. A glass coverslip modified with a monolayer film of ei ther butyldimethylsilane (BDMS) or aminopropyldimethylsilane (APDMS) w as adsorbed with an extracellular matrix protein, laminin. While a phy sicochemical property of the laminin adsorption was characterized by g oniometry, ellipsometry, and fluorescent microscopy, the biocompatible function was examined by growing embryonic hippocampal neurons using a chemically defined culture system. The neurons grown on laminin-adso rbed APDMS surfaces developed a typical morphology of hippocampal neur ons with multiple short-branched and single long-branched neurites, Th e use of BDMS films for laminin adsorption did not significantly affec t the longest neuritic length but altered the morphological characteri stics by reducing numbers of basal neurites and their branches. Such c haracteristics were highly dependent on the chemical features of monol ayer films where laminin was adsorbed. We have used patterned APDMS mo nolayer films, fabricated through a microlithographic technique, to pr eferentially adsorb laminin and to demonstrate the feasible way of geo metrically guiding central neurons in vitro. (C) 1998 Academic Press.