Proliferation and Cluster Analysis of Neurons and Glial Cell Organization on Nanocolumnar TiN Substrates

Biomaterials employed for neural stimulation, as well as brain/machine interfaces, offer great perspectives to combat neurodegenerative diseases, while application of lab-on-a-chip devices such as multielectrode arrays is a promising alternative to assess neural function in vitro. For bioelectronic...

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Main Authors: Alice Abend, Chelsie Steele, Sabine Schmidt, Ronny Frank, Heinz-Georg Jahnke, Mareike Zink
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
Series:International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/17/6249
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spelling doaj-1d87a8eaa5b3438797e07478190a2ce42020-11-25T03:44:01ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences1661-65961422-00672020-08-01216249624910.3390/ijms21176249Proliferation and Cluster Analysis of Neurons and Glial Cell Organization on Nanocolumnar TiN SubstratesAlice Abend0Chelsie Steele1Sabine Schmidt2Ronny Frank3Heinz-Georg Jahnke4Mareike Zink5Soft Matter Physics Division and Biotechnology & Biomedical Group, Peter-Debye-Institute for Soft Matter Physics, Leipzig University, Linnéstr. 5, 04103 Leipzig, GermanySoft Matter Physics Division and Biotechnology & Biomedical Group, Peter-Debye-Institute for Soft Matter Physics, Leipzig University, Linnéstr. 5, 04103 Leipzig, GermanyCentre for Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Molecular Biological-biochemical Processing Technology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5, 04103 Leipzig, GermanyCentre for Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Molecular Biological-biochemical Processing Technology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5, 04103 Leipzig, GermanyCentre for Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Molecular Biological-biochemical Processing Technology, Leipzig University, Deutscher Platz 5, 04103 Leipzig, GermanySoft Matter Physics Division and Biotechnology & Biomedical Group, Peter-Debye-Institute for Soft Matter Physics, Leipzig University, Linnéstr. 5, 04103 Leipzig, GermanyBiomaterials employed for neural stimulation, as well as brain/machine interfaces, offer great perspectives to combat neurodegenerative diseases, while application of lab-on-a-chip devices such as multielectrode arrays is a promising alternative to assess neural function in vitro. For bioelectronic monitoring, nanostructured microelectrodes are required, which exhibit an increased surface area where the detection sensitivity is not reduced by the self-impedance of the electrode. In our study, we investigated the interaction of neurons (SH-SY5Y) and glial cells (U-87 MG) with nanocolumnar titanium nitride (TiN) electrode materials in comparison to TiN with larger surface grains, gold, and indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates. Glial cells showed an enhanced proliferation on TiN materials; however, these cells spread evenly distributed over all the substrate surfaces. By contrast, neurons proliferated fastest on nanocolumnar TiN and formed large cell agglomerations. We implemented a radial autocorrelation function of cellular positions combined with various clustering algorithms. These combined analyses allowed us to quantify the largest cluster on nanocolumnar TiN; however, on ITO and gold, neurons spread more homogeneously across the substrates. As SH-SY5Y cells tend to grow in clusters under physiologic conditions, our study proves nanocolumnar TiN as a potential bioactive material candidate for the application of microelectrodes in contact with neurons. To this end, the employed K-means clustering algorithm together with radial autocorrelation analysis is a valuable tool to quantify cell-surface interaction and cell organization to evaluate biomaterials’ performance in vitro.https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/17/62491 neurons2 glial cells3 electrode materials4 autocorrelation function5 cluster analysis6 cell proliferation
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Alice Abend
Chelsie Steele
Sabine Schmidt
Ronny Frank
Heinz-Georg Jahnke
Mareike Zink
spellingShingle Alice Abend
Chelsie Steele
Sabine Schmidt
Ronny Frank
Heinz-Georg Jahnke
Mareike Zink
Proliferation and Cluster Analysis of Neurons and Glial Cell Organization on Nanocolumnar TiN Substrates
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
1 neurons
2 glial cells
3 electrode materials
4 autocorrelation function
5 cluster analysis
6 cell proliferation
author_facet Alice Abend
Chelsie Steele
Sabine Schmidt
Ronny Frank
Heinz-Georg Jahnke
Mareike Zink
author_sort Alice Abend
title Proliferation and Cluster Analysis of Neurons and Glial Cell Organization on Nanocolumnar TiN Substrates
title_short Proliferation and Cluster Analysis of Neurons and Glial Cell Organization on Nanocolumnar TiN Substrates
title_full Proliferation and Cluster Analysis of Neurons and Glial Cell Organization on Nanocolumnar TiN Substrates
title_fullStr Proliferation and Cluster Analysis of Neurons and Glial Cell Organization on Nanocolumnar TiN Substrates
title_full_unstemmed Proliferation and Cluster Analysis of Neurons and Glial Cell Organization on Nanocolumnar TiN Substrates
title_sort proliferation and cluster analysis of neurons and glial cell organization on nanocolumnar tin substrates
publisher MDPI AG
series International Journal of Molecular Sciences
issn 1661-6596
1422-0067
publishDate 2020-08-01
description Biomaterials employed for neural stimulation, as well as brain/machine interfaces, offer great perspectives to combat neurodegenerative diseases, while application of lab-on-a-chip devices such as multielectrode arrays is a promising alternative to assess neural function in vitro. For bioelectronic monitoring, nanostructured microelectrodes are required, which exhibit an increased surface area where the detection sensitivity is not reduced by the self-impedance of the electrode. In our study, we investigated the interaction of neurons (SH-SY5Y) and glial cells (U-87 MG) with nanocolumnar titanium nitride (TiN) electrode materials in comparison to TiN with larger surface grains, gold, and indium tin oxide (ITO) substrates. Glial cells showed an enhanced proliferation on TiN materials; however, these cells spread evenly distributed over all the substrate surfaces. By contrast, neurons proliferated fastest on nanocolumnar TiN and formed large cell agglomerations. We implemented a radial autocorrelation function of cellular positions combined with various clustering algorithms. These combined analyses allowed us to quantify the largest cluster on nanocolumnar TiN; however, on ITO and gold, neurons spread more homogeneously across the substrates. As SH-SY5Y cells tend to grow in clusters under physiologic conditions, our study proves nanocolumnar TiN as a potential bioactive material candidate for the application of microelectrodes in contact with neurons. To this end, the employed K-means clustering algorithm together with radial autocorrelation analysis is a valuable tool to quantify cell-surface interaction and cell organization to evaluate biomaterials’ performance in vitro.
topic 1 neurons
2 glial cells
3 electrode materials
4 autocorrelation function
5 cluster analysis
6 cell proliferation
url https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/17/6249
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AT ronnyfrank proliferationandclusteranalysisofneuronsandglialcellorganizationonnanocolumnartinsubstrates
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