Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 32: Posters: Physics of Cells
BP 32.9: Poster
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1
Mechanosensing by neurons and glial cells — •Kristian Franze1,2, Hanno Svoboda2, Pouria Moshayedi1,3, Andreas F. Christ1, James Fawcett3, Christine E. Holt2, and Jochen Guck1 — 1Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK — 2Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, UK — 3Brain Repair Center, University of Cambridge, UK
Nervous tissue is densely packed with different types of cells. All these building blocks differ in their mechanical properties. Here we show how neurons and glial cells respond to the compliance of their environment. Primary retinal ganglion cells, astrocytes, and microglia were cultured on polyacrylamide gels with shear moduli between 0.1 and 30 kPa, and quantitative morphometric analysis was used to evaluate cell responses to the mechanically different substrates. While astrocytes and microglia cultured on stiffer substrates showed increased perimeter, area, diameter, elongation, number of extremities and overall complexity if compared to those cultured on more compliant substrates, the lengths and branching patterns of neuronal processes were not significantly changed. However, when cultured on substrates with a stiffness gradient, neurons preferentially grew towards soft. The observed cellular behavior may explain why glial scars formed after traumatic injury to the central nervous system impede neuronal regeneration. Ultimately, this impediment might be circumvented by using neural implants that incorporate mechanical properties based on our findings.