The Impact of Prestretch Induced Surface Anisotropy on Axon Regeneration
Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Nerve regeneration after spinal cord injury requires proper axon alignment to bridge the lesion site and myelination to achieve functional recovery. Significant effort has been invested in developing engineering approaches to induce axon alignment with less focus on myelination. Topological features, such as aligned fibers and channels, have been shown to induce axon alignment, but do not enhance axon thickness. We previously demonstrated that surface anisotropy generated through mechanical prestretch induced mesenchymal stem cells to align in the direction of prestretch. In this study, we demonstrate that static prestretch-induced anisotropy promotes dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons to extend thicker axon aggregates along the stretched direction and form aligned fascicular-like axon tracts. Moreover, Schwann cells, when cocultured with DRG neurons on the prestretched surface colocalized with the aligned axons and expressed P0 protein, are indicative of myelination of the aligned axons, thereby demonstrating that prestretch-induced surface anisotropy is beneficial in enhancing axon alignment, growth, and myelination.
Authors: Chun Liu, Ryan Pyne, Jungsil Kim, Neil Thomas Wright, Seungik Baek, Christina Chan
Institutions: Michigan State University, Washington University in St. Louis
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, Michigan State University, National Institutes of Health, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
Awards: Deep Sequencing to Screen Functional Antibody Epitopes, CDI-Type II: Discovery of Biophysical Mechanisms Inducing Signaling and Cytotoxicity: An Experimental Approach Enabled by Cyber Tools, G316389574, EAGER: Integrative Computational Model for Mechanosensing and Subcellular Remodeling, G6490296102, Bioengineered Scaffolds for Spinal Cord Injury, Maximizing siRNA Function through Mechanism-based Sequence and Vehicle Design
OpenAlex ID: W2196931272