Two-photon lithography and microscopy of 3D hydrogel scaffolds for neuronal cell growth

Angelo Accardo (1) , Marie-Charline Blatché (2) , Rémi Courson (3) , Isabelle Loubinoux (4) , Christophe Vieu (1) , Laurent Malaquin (1)

1 LAAS-ELIA - Équipe Ingénierie pour les sciences du vivant
2 LAAS-I2C - Service Instrumentation Conception Caractérisation
3 LAAS-TEAM - Service Techniques et Équipements Appliqués à la Microélectronique
4 ToNIC - Toulouse NeuroImaging Center

3D fabrication techniques are rapidly expanding in the field of scaffold development for cell culture and tissue engineering. Herein we report the realization of free-standing PEGDA hydrogel architectures by using two-photon lithography. The morphological and immunofluorescence characterization of neuro2A cells revealed a tridimensional colonization featuring multiple neuritic extensions per cell as well as the expression of β-tubulin neuronal marker and actin microfilaments. The results open new perspectives in the continuous quest for structured biomaterials able to provide a favorable environment to cells and at the same time not interfering with imaging protocols necessary for a clear scenario of the cell seeding.

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Matériaux; Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Ingénierie biomédicale; Biomatériaux

Angelo Accardo, Marie-Charline Blatché, Rémi Courson, Isabelle Loubinoux, Christophe Vieu, et al.. Two-photon lithography and microscopy of 3D hydrogel scaffolds for neuronal cell growth. Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express, 2018, 4 (2), pp.027009. ⟨10.1088/2057-1976/aaab93⟩. ⟨hal-01698486⟩