AVS 51st International Symposium
    Biomaterial Interfaces Monday Sessions
       Session BI-MoP

Paper BI-MoP27
Reflex-Arc on a Chip: an in Silico Cell Culture Analogue

Monday, November 15, 2004, 5:00 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: K.A. Wilson, Clemson University
Authors: K.A. Wilson, Clemson University
M. Das, Clemson University
L.C. Riedel, Clemson University
C.A. Gregory, Clemson University
M. Poeta, Clemson University
D. Damjanovich, Clemson University
P. Molnar, Clemson University
J.J. Hickman, Clemson University
Correspondent: Click to Email
To date understanding of and development of therapies for traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) and neurodegenerative diseases have been problematic due in part to difficulties associated with the various models used to test new drug therapies. Animal studies are expensive, time consuming, and raise ethical issues. In vitro studies are less expensive and avoid many of the ethical issues associated with animal studies, but are often poor predictors of human response. To overcome the shortcomings of existing models we are developing a microscopic cell culture analogue (microCCA) of the spinal reflex-arc. This system should retain the cost effectiveness of in vitro systems while allowing complex tissue interactions and environmental dynamics that more realistically reflect the in vivo state. The present work draws on advances in a wide variety of technical fields including cell culture, surface chemistry, and microfabrication. These advances have allowed us to begin development of a microCCA device comprised of the basic components of the reflex-arc: a muscle fiber, a dorsal root ganglion (DRG) cell, and a motoneuron. Silicon microstructures serve as the foundation of the device. Surface modification with alkyl-silane SAMs followed by patterning with deep UV photolithography was performed to selectively control cell adhesion and growth. XPS analysis indicated monolayer formation. Furthermore, we have demonstrated the control of neuronal growth and myotube differentiation on the microstructures. Electrophysiology results have confirmed that the neurons and myotubes have physiological properties consistent with previous findings. With this system it will ultimately be possible to report on a variety of properties of the reflex-arc, thereby creating a cost-effective, predictive test bed for the development of novel drug therapies for traumatic SCI and a wide variety of neurodegenerative diseases.