Paper BI+AS+SA-ThM1
Response of PC 12 Cells to Mesoporous Substrates with and without DC Bias

Thursday, November 10, 2016, 8:00 am, Room 101A

The interaction of nerve cells with nanostructured surfaces and substrates is of great importance to the field of tissue engineering and artificial substrates developed for biomedical applications. It has been established that cells respond to different polymer surface characteristics such as roughness, surface free energy, topography, chemistry, charge, and other properties including electrical conductivity. It has also been recognized that the nanotopography can affect and influence cell morphology, cell alignment, cell signaling and extension of neurites. Here, we discuss the influence of the mesoporous structure of crosslinked silica aerogels on the adhesion, proliferation, and neurite extension of PC 12 cells, in the presence and absence of applied DC bias. The behavior of cultured PC 12cells on the aerogel substrates is compared to the behavior of cells cultured on cell culture plastic (control) and the affect of applied DC bias of different magnitudes is carefully investigated. The neurite extensions clearly show a preferred growth direction and the rate of growth of extensions is also influenced by the varying conditions.