Scaffolds for neuronal differentiation

Laura RUSSO, Università di Milano-Bicocca - NanoMiB  (Centro Interdipartimentale di Nanomedicina)

Regenerative medicine approaches based on scaffolds inspired to extracellular matrix (ECM) are rapidly expanding. Nanostructure scaffold able to mimic the role of ECM proteins in the regulation of cell microenvironment can be activated with signalling cues in order to maintain cell viability and to control and guide cell behaviour. Carbohydrates afford a versatile and powerful wealth to generate biochemical signals, the so-called “sugar code”, since they greatly exceed other classes of biomolecules in coding capacity. In the nervous system, post-translational glycosylation has crucial roles in neurite outgrowth and in fasciculation, in synapse formation and modulation in both the developing and mature nervous system. Given these premises, collagen and elastin matrices have been conjugated to selected carbohydrate epitopes. We demonstrated that neuronal cells may be driven from proliferation to differentiation to functionally active neurons, as a function of the signaling carbohydrate  epitope. This observation was obtained with neuroblastoma F11 cell lines and with hUBC (human umbilical blood)-MSC and hBM (human bone marrow)-MSC.

 
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