Mechanical cues arising from extracellular matrices greatly affect cellular properties, and hence, are of significance in designing biomaterials. In this study, a DNA crosslinked hydrogel was employed to examine cellular responses of spinal cord neurons to substrate compliances. Using DNA as crosslinkers in polymeric hydrogel formation has given rise to a new class of hydrogels with a number of attractive properties (e.g., reversible gelation and controlled crosslinking). Here, it was demonstrated that by varying length of crosslinker, monomer concentration, and level of crosslinking, DNA gel stiffnesses span from approximately 100 Pa to 30 kPa. Assessment of neurite outgrowth on functionalized DNA gels showed that although primary dendrite length is not significantly affected, spinal cord neurons extend more primary dendrites and shorter axons on stiffer gels. Additionally, a greater proportion of neurons have more primary dendrites and shorter axons on stiffer gels. There is a pronounced reduction in focal adhesion kinase (FAK) when neurons are exposed to stiffer substrates, suggesting its involvement in neuronal mechanosensing and neuritogenesis in response to stiffness. These results demonstrate the importance of mechanical aspects of the cell-ECM interactions, and provide guidance for the design of mechanical properties of bio-scaffolds for neural tissue engineering applications.

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Central nervous system tissues, like other tissue types, undergo constant remodeling, which potentially leads to changes in their mechanical stiffness. Moreover, mechanical compliance of central nervous system tissues can also be modified under external load such as that experienced in traumatic brain or spinal cord injury, and during pathological processes. Thus, the neuronal responses to the dynamic stiffness of the microenvironment are of significance. In this study, we induced decrease in stiffness by using a DNA-crosslinked hydrogel, and subjected rat spinal cord neurons to such dynamic stiffness. The neurons respond to the dynamic cues as evidenced by the primary neurite structure, and the response from each neurite property (e.g., axonal length and primary dendrite number) is consistent with the behavior on static gels of same substrate rigidity, with one exception of mean primary dendrite length. The results on cell population distribution confirm the neuronal responses to the dynamic stiffness. Quantification on the focal adhesion kinase expression in the neuronal cell body on dynamic gels suggests that neurons also modify adhesion in coping with the dynamic stiffnesses. The results reported here extend the neuronal mechanosensing capability to dynamic stiffness of extracellular matrix, and give rise to a novel way of engineering neurite outgrowth in time dimension.

In this study, we describe the design and initial results of probing mechanical adaptation of neurite growth of lightly fixed neurons on a hydrogel substrate by using atomic force microscopy (AFM). It has been shown previously that cells are responsive to the physical conditions of their micro-environment, and that certain cells can adjust their own stiffness as part of the adaptation to the substrate. AFM, a powerful tool to probe micro- and nano-scale structures, has been utilized in assessing topography, morphology, and structural change of neuronal cells. We used AFM with a robust force analysis approach in this study to probe the mechanical properties of both neurites and the substrate at close proximity. We first confirmed the robustness and consistency of the approach specific to soft materials by comparing measurements made on the same reference material using different methods. Subsequently, it was found that the primary spinal cord neurons that were lightly fixed exhibited different stiffnesses between the cell body and neurites. Furthermore, in comparison to the rigidity of the substrate, the stiffness of the neurites was lower, whereas that of the neuronal cell body was higher.

Mechanical cues have been found to play an important role in the cell decision making process, as manifested in survival, adhesion, growth, proliferation, differentiation and functioning. Due to their resemblance to the natural tissues, polyacrylamide hydrogels have been used in the studies of mechanobiology and particularly cell-substrate interactions for various cell types including fibroblasts, hepatocytes and neurons [1]. As the initial investigation, we have successfully cultured rat spinal cord neurons on bis-crosslinked gels with large range of stiffnesses [2].