Engineered Microdevices to Study and Manipulate Neural Stem Cell Chemotaxis

Traditional in vitro chemotaxis tools are typically limited by unstable concentration gradients, presence of hydrodynamic shear, and the inability to decouple cell migration directionality and speed. These limitations have restricted the reproducible and quantitative analysis of neuronal migration, which is a requirement for mechanism-based studies that may guide the development of new therapeutic strategies for neural regeneration. Here we describe a microfluidic setup for creating stable, linear, and shear-free gradients of putative chemotactic cues and their application in quantifying chemotaxis (i.e., migration directionality) and migration speed of human neural progenitor cells (NPCs). These devices can be coated with various extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins for the study of two-dimensional (2D) migration or filled with ECM hydrogels (e.g., collagen I or Matrigel) for the study of three-dimensional (3D) migration.
Source: Springer protocols feed by Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: news