Kyungtae Kang†‡, Yi-Seul Park§, Matthew Park†, Min Jee Jang‡, Seong-Min Kim∥, Juno Lee†, Ji Yu Choi†, Da Hee Jung§, Young-Tae Chang⊥, Myung-Han Yoon*∥, Jin Seok Lee*§, Yoonkey Nam*‡, and Insung S. Choi*†‡
† Center for Cell-Encapsulation Research and Molecular-Level Interface Research Center, Department of Chemistry, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Korea
‡ Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 34141, Korea
§ Department of Chemistry, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul 04310, Korea
∥ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 61005, Korea
⊥ Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore
Author Contributions
K.K., Y.-S.P., and M.P. contributed equally to this work.
*Corresponding authors
Abstract
In this work, we report that high-density, vertically grown silicon nanowires (vg-SiNWs) direct a new in vitro developmental pathway of primary hippocampal neurons. Neurons on vg-SiNWs formed a single, extremely elongated major neurite earlier than minor neurites, which led to accelerated polarization. Additionally, the development of lamellipodia, which generally occurs on 2D culture coverslips, was absent on vg-SiNWs. The results indicate that surface topography is an important factor that influences neuronal development and also provide implications for the role of topography in neuronal development in vivo.
Keywords: Silicon nanowires; neurite development; F-actin dynamics; primary hippocampal neuron; chemical vapor deposition; live-cell imaging