Abstract/Summary

Neuronal patterning on microfabricated architectures has developed rapidly over the past years, together with the emergence of soft biocompatible materials and tissue engineering scaffolds. Previously, we introduced a patterning technique based on serum and the biopolymer parylene-C, achieving highly compliant growth of primary neurons and astrocytes on different geometries. Here, we expand this technique and illustrate that neuralized cells derived from mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) will follow stripes of variable widths, with conformity equal to or higher than that of primary neurons and astrocytes. Our results indicate the presence of undifferentiated mESC, which also conform to the underlying patterns to a high degree. This is an exciting and unexpected outcome, as molecular mechanisms governing cell and ECM protein interactions are different in stem cells and primary cells. Our study enables further investigations into the devel-opment and electrophysiology of differentiating, patterned neural stem cells.