Title : Electrical stimulation in nerve tissue engineering. Multifactorial analysis in vitro
Abstract:
Electrical stimulation in nerve tissue engineering is a way to promote cell differentiation, which experimentally demonstrates efficiency and characteristics dependent on the form of stimulation. Considering that the materials used to develop scaffolds usually incorporate chemical signals as inducers of proliferation and differentiation, together with the contribution of their own topological characteristics, it is necessary to incorporate a multifactorial analysis which allows understanding the dimensions of the contribution and the dependence of the different stimulating variables, which within an in vitro culture, represent sufficient evidence to determine synergisms that demonstrate significance for the development of therapeutic strategies. In the present investigation we have developed a multifactorial analysis to understand the relationships between variables stimulating PC12 cell differentiation, including viscoelastic properties of hydrogels commonly used in nerve tissue engineering studies, concentrations of neurotrophic chemical stimuli, and a variety of electrical stimuli exerted in an arbitrary function generation system. Neurite development, along with length, frequency and branching analysis are used to compare the efficiency of differentiation dependent on various treatment schemes, which through multifactorial analysis provide insight into the relative activities of each type of stimulus.