TY - JOUR
T1 - Accelerating bioelectric functional development of neural stem cells by graphene coupling
T2 - Implications for neural interfacing with conductive materials
AU - Guo, Rongrong
AU - Zhang, Shasha
AU - Xiao, Miao
AU - Qian, Fuping
AU - He, Zuhong
AU - Li, Dan
AU - Zhang, Xiaoli
AU - Li, Huawei
AU - Yang, Xiaowei
AU - Wang, Ming
AU - Chai, Renjie
AU - Tang, Mingliang
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2016/11/1
Y1 - 2016/11/1
N2 - In order to govern cell-specific behaviors in tissue engineering for neural repair and regeneration, a better understanding of material-cell interactions, especially the bioelectric functions, is extremely important. Graphene has been reported to be a potential candidate for use as a scaffold and neural interfacing material. However, the bioelectric evolvement of cell membranes on these conductive graphene substrates remains largely uninvestigated. In this study, we used a neural stem cell (NSC) model to explore the possible changes in membrane bioelectric properties – including resting membrane potentials and action potentials – and cell behaviors on graphene films under both proliferation and differentiation conditions. We used a combination of single-cell electrophysiological recordings and traditional cell biology techniques. Graphene did not affect the basic membrane electrical parameters (capacitance and input resistance), but resting membrane potentials of cells on graphene substrates were more strongly negative under both proliferation and differentiation conditions. Also, NSCs and their progeny on graphene substrates exhibited increased firing of action potentials during development compared to controls. However, graphene only slightly affected the electric characterizations of mature NSC progeny. The modulation of passive and active bioelectric properties on the graphene substrate was accompanied by enhanced NSC differentiation. Furthermore, spine density, synapse proteins expressions and synaptic activity were all increased in graphene group. Modeling of the electric field on conductive graphene substrates suggests that the electric field produced by the electronegative cell membrane is much higher on graphene substrates than that on control, and this might explain the observed changes of bioelectric development by graphene coupling. Our results indicate that graphene is able to accelerate NSC maturation during development, especially with regard to bioelectric evolvement. Our findings provide a fundamental understanding of the role of conductive materials in tuning the membrane bioelectric properties in a graphene model and pave the way for future studies on the development of methods and materials for manipulating membrane properties in a controllable way for NSC-based therapies.
AB - In order to govern cell-specific behaviors in tissue engineering for neural repair and regeneration, a better understanding of material-cell interactions, especially the bioelectric functions, is extremely important. Graphene has been reported to be a potential candidate for use as a scaffold and neural interfacing material. However, the bioelectric evolvement of cell membranes on these conductive graphene substrates remains largely uninvestigated. In this study, we used a neural stem cell (NSC) model to explore the possible changes in membrane bioelectric properties – including resting membrane potentials and action potentials – and cell behaviors on graphene films under both proliferation and differentiation conditions. We used a combination of single-cell electrophysiological recordings and traditional cell biology techniques. Graphene did not affect the basic membrane electrical parameters (capacitance and input resistance), but resting membrane potentials of cells on graphene substrates were more strongly negative under both proliferation and differentiation conditions. Also, NSCs and their progeny on graphene substrates exhibited increased firing of action potentials during development compared to controls. However, graphene only slightly affected the electric characterizations of mature NSC progeny. The modulation of passive and active bioelectric properties on the graphene substrate was accompanied by enhanced NSC differentiation. Furthermore, spine density, synapse proteins expressions and synaptic activity were all increased in graphene group. Modeling of the electric field on conductive graphene substrates suggests that the electric field produced by the electronegative cell membrane is much higher on graphene substrates than that on control, and this might explain the observed changes of bioelectric development by graphene coupling. Our results indicate that graphene is able to accelerate NSC maturation during development, especially with regard to bioelectric evolvement. Our findings provide a fundamental understanding of the role of conductive materials in tuning the membrane bioelectric properties in a graphene model and pave the way for future studies on the development of methods and materials for manipulating membrane properties in a controllable way for NSC-based therapies.
KW - Bioelectric properties
KW - Differentiation
KW - Graphene
KW - Neural stem cells
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84983552171&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2016.08.019
DO - 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2016.08.019
M3 - Article
C2 - 27566868
AN - SCOPUS:84983552171
SN - 0142-9612
VL - 106
SP - 193
EP - 204
JO - Biomaterials
JF - Biomaterials
ER -