title: Hypergravity stimulation enhances PC12 neuron-like cell differentiation.
abstract: Altered gravity is a strong physical cue able to elicit different cellular responses, representing a largely uninvestigated opportunity for tissue engineering/regenerative medicine applications. Our recent studies have shown that both proliferation and differentiation of C2C12 skeletal muscle cells can be enhanced by hypergravity treatment; given these results, PC12 neuron-like cells were chosen to test the hypothesis that hypergravity stimulation might also affect the behavior of neuronal cells, in particular promoting an enhanced differentiated phenotype. PC12 cells were thus cultured under differentiating conditions for either 12 h or 72 h before being stimulated with different values of hypergravity (50 g and 150 g). Effects of hypergravity were evaluated at transcriptional level 1 h and 48 h after the stimulation, and at protein level 48 h from hypergravity exposure, to assess its influence on neurite development over increasing differentiation times. PC12 differentiation resulted strongly affected by the hypergravity treatments; in particular, neurite length was significantly enhanced after exposure to high acceleration values. The achieved results suggest that hypergravity might induce a faster and higher neuronal differentiation and encourage further investigations on the potential of hypergravity in the preparation of cellular constructs for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering purposes.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics @SSSA, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56025 Pontedera (Pisa), Italy.
authors.forename: Giada Graziana
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2154-7991
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Genchi
authors.affiliation: ASAcampus Joint Laboratory, ASA Research Division, Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139 Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2290-0566
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cialdai
authors.affiliation: ASAcampus Joint Laboratory, ASA Research Division, Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Viale Pieraccini 6, 50139 Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6678-9241
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Monici
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics @SSSA, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56025 Pontedera (Pisa), Italy.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0722-8350
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mazzolai
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics @SSSA, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56025 Pontedera (Pisa), Italy.
authors.forename: Virgilio
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4715-8353
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mattoli
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Micro-BioRobotics @SSSA, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56025 Pontedera (Pisa), Italy.
authors.forename: Gianni
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1192-3647
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ciofani
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000502:physiology; D018471:Hypergravity; D018485:Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D016501:Neurites / Q000502:physiology*; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology; D016716:PC12 Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D044968:Regenerative Medicine / Q000379:methods; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000502:physiology