Defined adhesion and growth of neurones on artificial structured substrates

Patterned adhesion of neurones and directed growth of neurites is the pre-requisite to establish meaningful in vitro models for the study of interactions and signalling between neurones. We have therefore studied two model systems for structured substrates. Silicon samples were microstructured by etching. Neurones adhered preferentially onto the bottom of the resulting grooves and wells. Outgrowth of neurites could be observed on adsorptive coating with polylysine and laminin. Most of the neurites did not cross the border between the plain surfaces of the silicon sample and the bottom of the grooves and wells. The second approach was to use interdigitating platinum comb electrodes. One of them was coated with laminin by electrochemical polymerisation. A strong outgrowth of axons was found, and such a surface modification appears to be suitable for the creation of neuronal patterns with effective growth of axons in vitro. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.