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Spontaneous Activity Characteristics of 3D 'Optonets'
- Source :
- Frontiers in Neuroscience
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Frontiers Media S.A., 2017.
-
Abstract
- Sporadic spontaneous network activity emerges during early central nervous system (CNS) development and, as the number of neuronal connections rises, the maturing network displays diverse and complex activity, including various types of synchronized patterns. These activity patterns have major implications on both basic research and the study of neurological disorders, and their interplay with network morphology tightly correlates with developmental events such as neuronal differentiation, migration and establishment of neurotransmitter phenotypes. Although 2D neural cultures models have provided important insights into network activity patterns, these cultures fail to mimic the complex 3D architecture of natural CNS neural networks and its consequences on connectivity and activity. A 3D in-vitro model mimicking early network development while enabling cellular-resolution observations, could thus significantly advance our understanding of the activity characteristics in the developing CNS. Here, we longitudinally studied the spontaneous activity patterns of developing 3D in-vitro neural network "optonets," an optically-accessible bioengineered CNS model with multiple cortex-like characteristics. Optonet activity was observed using the genetically encodable calcium indicator GCaMP6m and a 3D imaging solution based on a standard epi-fluorescence microscope equipped with a piezo-electric z-stage and image processing-based deconvolution. Our results show that activity patterns become more complex as the network matures, gradually exhibiting longer-duration events. This report characterizes the patterns over time, and discusses how environmental changes affect the activity patterns. The relatively high degree of similarity between the network's spontaneously generated activity patterns and the reported characteristics of in-vivo activity, suggests that this is a compelling model system for brain-in-a chip research.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Neural activity
3D cultures
General Neuroscience
Neuronal differentiation
Central nervous system
Model system
Biology
Phenotype
03 medical and health sciences
calcium imaging
030104 developmental biology
0302 clinical medicine
Calcium imaging
medicine.anatomical_structure
Neural development
Basic research
medicine
Degree of similarity
Neuroscience
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Original Research
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1662453X and 16624548
- Volume :
- 10
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Frontiers in Neuroscience
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....fd83e6269461b420cf3cdd066cd77b72