AI Article Synopsis

  • Neural differentiation is key for understanding the nervous system and treating neurological disorders, but traditional methods can be slow and imprecise.
  • A new microfluidic chip using aligned microelectrodes was developed to improve the differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into functional neurons.
  • By applying electrical stimulation along with neurotrophic factors, researchers found a significant boost in neuron generation and synaptic interactions from iPSCs.

Article Abstract

Neural differentiation is crucial for advancing our understanding of the nervous system and developing treatments for neurological disorders. The advanced methods and the ability to manipulate the alignment, proliferation, and differentiation of stem cells are essential for studying neuronal development and synaptic interactions. However, the utilization of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for disease modeling of neurodegenerative conditions may be constrained by the prolonged duration and uncontrolled cell differentiation required for functional neural cell differentiation. Here, we developed a microfluidic chip to enhance the differentiation and maturation of specific neural lineages by placing aligned microelectrodes on the glass surface to regulate the neural differentiation of human iPSCs. The utilization of electrical stimulation (ES) in conjunction with neurotrophic factors (NF) significantly enhanced the efficiency in generating functional neurons from human iPSCs. We also observed that the simultaneous application of NF and ES to human iPSCs promoted their differentiation and maturation into functional neurons while increasing synaptic interactions. Our research demonstrated the effect of combining NF and ES on human iPSC-derived neural differentiation.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsami.3c17108DOI Listing

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