Issue 42, 2016

Three dimensional conjugation of recombinant N-cadherin to a hydrogel for in vitro anisotropic neural growth

Abstract

Living cells are being extensively studied to build functional tissues that are useful for both fundamental and applied bioscience studies. Increasing evidence suggests that cell–cell adhesion controlled by the intercellular cadherin junction plays important roles in the quality of the resulting engineered tissue. These findings prompted efforts to interrogate biological effects of cadherin at a molecular scale; however, few efforts were made to harness the effects of cadherin on cells cultured in an in vivo-like three dimensional matrix. To this end, this study reports a hydrogel matrix three dimensionally functionalized with a controlled number of Fc-tagged recombinant N-cadherins (N-Cad-Fc). To retain the desired conformation of N-Cad, these cadherins were immobilized and oriented to the gel by anti-Fc-antibodies chemically coupled to gels. The gels were processed to present N-Cad-Fc in uniaxially aligned microchannels or randomly oriented micropores. Culturing cortical cells in the functionalized gels generated a large fraction of neurons that are functional as indicated by increased intracellular calcium ion concentrations with the microchanneled gel. In contrast, direct N-Cad-Fc immobilization to microchannel or micropore walls of the gel limited the growth of neurons and increased the glial to neuron ratio. The results of this study will be highly useful to organize a wide array of cadherin molecules in a series of biomaterials used for three-dimensional cell culture and to regulate phenotypic activities of tissue-forming cells in an elaborate manner.

Graphical abstract: Three dimensional conjugation of recombinant N-cadherin to a hydrogel for in vitro anisotropic neural growth

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 iyl 2016
Accepted
20 sen 2016
First published
21 sen 2016

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2016,4, 6803-6811

Three dimensional conjugation of recombinant N-cadherin to a hydrogel for in vitro anisotropic neural growth

J. C. M. Vega L., M. K. Lee, E. C. Qin, M. Rich, K. Y. Lee, D. H. Kim, H. J. Chung, D. E. Leckband and H. Kong, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2016, 4, 6803 DOI: 10.1039/C6TB01814A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements