Professor Myung-Han Yoon's research team identifies principle of promoting the development of central nerve cells on vertical nanocolumns

□ Professor Myung-Han Yoon of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (President Seung Hyeon Moon) along with Professor Yoon Myung-Han of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, along with KAIST Professor Insung Choi and Kyung Hee University Professor Kyungtae Kang have identified the principle of promoting the development of central nerve cells on vertical nanocolumns.

∘ This suggests that the neuron recognizes the surface topography, and it is expected that future engineering applications of nanotechnology will be improved by controlling the development of neurons.

□ The development of neurons is an essential phenomenon in controlling neuronal growth, and neurites develops differently depending on the physical and chemical factors of the surface. The effect of physical parameters on growth was not understood well.

∘ It is possible to control the growth of nerve cells, and this can be used as a platform for nerve regeneration and neural prosthesis. Fusion studies on interfaces between nerve cells and artificial surfaces in various fields, such as chemistry and electronics, are actively being pursued.

□ GIST, Kyung Hee University, and KAIST collaborated to investigate the cause of the development of neuronal cells and the acceleration of neurite growth by controlling the height and density of the vertical nanocolumn structures.

∘ The nanoparticles used in this study can control topographical features independently and have excellent cell culture suitability. The research team used several papers from 2015 to 2017 to confirm that this is a suitable platform as a cell-nanomaterial interface, including stem cells.

∘ The researchers used metal-catalyzed chemical etching to control the length and density of the nanocolumn structures, which accelerated the neurite outgrowth and development of hippocampus cells from the central nervous system, demonstrating that the cause of the acceleration is due to the strong bonds of the nanoparticles and neurites.

∘ The cell viability of the central nerve cell cultured on this nanocolumn substrate was analyzed to be about 100% higher than that of the control group. The length of the neurite formed on the first day of culture was 90 μm, which was 1.8% longer than the control group, which was 50 μm.

∘ In addition, the neurons cultured on the nanocolumn had a small growth cone compared to the control group, and the expression of the focal adhesion protein in the growth cone was doubled compared to the control group.

∘ As a result of neuron cultivation on nanocolumns of different height, the neurite developmental stage changes largely according to the presence or absence of nanocolumns, while the growth rate increases in proportion to the height of nano pillars from 300 nm to 1300 nm. When the cells were fully supported on the nanopillars, the rate was found to be constant.

□ Professor Myung-Han Yoon said, "Technology to control the growth of central nervous cells is the most interesting topic in regenerative medicine because understanding the regeneration of neurites can help understand normal tissue regeneration. This can be applied to the design of nerve regeneration platforms, such as neural prosthesis, because it can accelerate neurite growth."

□ This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program and the Pioneer Research Center Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning and also by the GIST Research Institute (GRI) in 2016. The paper "Strong contact coupling of neuronal growth cones withheight-controlled vertical silicon nanocolumns" was published online on November 7, 2017, in Nano Research.