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    Biomaterials Thursday Sessions
       Session BI-ThA

Paper BI-ThA3
Developmental Studies of Electrical Activity of Artificially Constructed Neuronal Cell Networks

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 2:40 pm, Room 102

Session: Cell-Surface Interaction
Presenter: C.D. James, Cornell University
Authors: C.D. James, Cornell University
A.J. Spence, Cornell University
H.G. Craighead, Cornell University
M.S. Isaacson, Cornell University
N. Dowell, Wadsworth Center
W. Shain, Wadsworth Center
J. Turner, Wadsworth Center
Correspondent: Click to Email
The hippocampus has been implicated in a range of brain functions such as the internal representation of space and memory consolidation. Dissociated hippocampal pyramidal cell cultures have yielded vital information about single unit and small network electrophysiology, yet monitoring synaptogenesis and the development of electrical activity within cell networks has proved to be a difficult task. The construction of neuronal cell networks has been investigated by many researchers for this purpose, and our labs have utilized microcontact printing and microfabricated electrode arrays to construct and study cell networks. Selective spatial organization of proteins and molecules have been used to direct neuronal cell attachment and neurite outgrowth in vitro, while microelectrode arrays allow long-term, non-invasive studies on developing network populations. The combination of both technologies has allowed our labs to monitor field and action potentials of designed cell networks in order to investigate the relevance of such factors as cell morphology and neuron-substrate interaction on the development and stability of connected units. Multi- and single-unit extracellular potentials of 50 to 300 microvolts have been observed and recorded with five simultaneous channels to enable single unit discrimination. Whole cell recordings were also performed to provide guidance in isolating single units in our extracellular recordings, while immunochemical staining of networks for synaptic proteins such as synaptophysin and PSD-95 was used to identify putative synapses. We believe that such studies may be able to provide valuable information about the maturation of coordinated activity between cells, primarily in regards to the influence of neuron morphology on action potential invasion into the somato-dendritic regions of firing cells, as well as on the developmental segregation and distribution within cells of relevant molecules such as ion channels and synaptic proteins.