title: Long-Term Tissue Culture of Adult Brain and Spleen Slices on Nanostructured Scaffolds.
abstract: Long-term tissue culture of adult mammalian organs is a highly promising approach to bridge the gap between single cell cultures and animal experiments, and bears the potential to reduce in vivo studies. Novel biomimetic materials open up new possibilities to maintain the complex tissue structure in vitro; however, survival times of adult tissues ex vivo are still limited to a few days with established state-of-the-art techniques. Here, it is demonstrated that TiO2nanotube scaffolds with specific tissue-tailored characteristics can serve as superior substrates for long-term adult brain and spleen tissue culture. High viability of the explants for at least two weeks is achieved and compared to tissues cultured on standard polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes. Histological and immunohistochemical staining and live imaging are used to investigate tissue condition after 5 and 14 d in vitro, while environmental scanning electron microscopy qualifies the interaction with the underlying scaffold. In contrast to tissues cultured on PTFE membranes, enhanced tissue morphology is detected in spleen slices, as well as minor cell death in neuronal tissue, both cultured on nanotube scaffolds. This novel biomimetic tissue model will prove to be useful to address fundamental biological and medical questions from tissue regeneration up to tumor progression and therapeutic approaches.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Anatomy, University of Leipzig, Oststr. 25, 04317, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kallendrusch
authors.affiliation: Institute of Anatomy, University of Leipzig, Oststr. 25, 04317, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Felicitas
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Merz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Anatomy, University of Leipzig, Oststr. 25, 04317, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Ingo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bechmann
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institute for Surface Modification (IOM) e.V., Permoser Str. 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany.|Division of Surface Physics, Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, University of Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Mayr
authors.affiliation: Soft Matter Physics Division, Institute for Experimental Physics 1, University of Leipzig, Linnéstr. 5, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Mareike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zink
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051379:Mice; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D011138:Polytetrafluoroethylene / Q000737:chemistry; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology*; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
chemical_list: D011138:Polytetrafluoroethylene
keywords: adult tissue culture; brain tissue; culture scaffolds; nanotubes; spleen tissue