title: Effects of Morphology Constraint on Electrophysiological Properties of Cortical Neurons.
abstract: There is growing interest in engineering nerve cells in vitro to control architecture and connectivity of cultured neuronal networks or to build neuronal networks with predictable computational function. Pattern technologies, such as micro-contact printing, have been developed to design ordered neuronal networks. However, electrophysiological characteristics of the single patterned neuron haven't been reported. Here, micro-contact printing, using polyolefine polymer (POP) stamps with high resolution, was employed to grow cortical neurons in a designed structure. The results demonstrated that the morphology of patterned neurons was well constrained, and the number of dendrites was decreased to be about 2. Our electrophysiological results showed that alterations of dendritic morphology affected firing patterns of neurons and neural excitability. When stimulated by current, though both patterned and un-patterned neurons presented regular spiking, the dynamics and strength of the response were different. The un-patterned neurons exhibited a monotonically increasing firing frequency in response to injected current, while the patterned neurons first exhibited frequency increase and then a slow decrease. Our findings indicate that the decrease in dendritic complexity of cortical neurons will influence their electrophysiological characteristics and alter their information processing activity, which could be considered when designing neuronal circuitries.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Complex Systems, Bioelectronics (PGI-8/ICS-8), Forschungszentrum Jülich, JARA - FIT, Jülich D-52425, Germany.|Bio-X Institutes, Key Laboratory for the Genetics of Development and Neuropsychiatric Disorders (Ministry of Education), and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Psychotic Disorders, Brain Science and Technology Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors.forename: Geng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Complex Systems, Bioelectronics (PGI-8/ICS-8), Forschungszentrum Jülich, JARA - FIT, Jülich D-52425, Germany.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China.
authors.forename: Liping
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Institute of Complex Systems, Bioelectronics (PGI-8/ICS-8), Forschungszentrum Jülich, JARA - FIT, Jülich D-52425, Germany.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Complex Systems, Bioelectronics (PGI-8/ICS-8), Forschungszentrum Jülich, JARA - FIT, Jülich D-52425, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Offenhäusser
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002470:Cell Survival; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D003712:Dendrites / Q000502:physiology; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats