Two-Photon Polymerization of 2.5D and 3D Microstructures Fostering a Ramified Resting Phenotype in Primary Microglia.

Microglia are the resident macrophages of the central nervous system and contribute to maintaining brain's homeostasis. Current 2D "petri-dish" cell culturing platforms employed for microglia, are unrepresentative of the softness or topography of native brain tissue. This often contributes to changes in microglial morphology, exhibiting an amoeboid phenotype that considerably differs from the homeostatic ramified phenotype in healthy brain tissue.