Optogenetic control of nerve growth

Due to the limited regenerative ability of neural tissue, a diverse set of biochemical and biophysical cues for increasing nerve growth has been investigated, including neurotrophic factors, topography and electrical stimulation. In this report, we explore optogenetic control of neurite growth as a cell-specific alternative to electrical stimulation. By investigating a broad range of optical stimulation parameters on dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) expressing channelrhodopsin 2 (ChR2), we identified conditions that enhance neurite outgrowth by three-fold as compared to unstimulated or wild-type (WT) controls. Furthermore, optogenetic stimulation of ChR2 expressing DRGs induces directional outgrowth in WT DRGs co-cultured within a 10 mm vicinity of the optically sensitive ganglia. This observed enhancement and polarization of neurite growth was accompanied by an increased expression of neural growth and brain derived neurotrophic factors (NGF, BDNF). This work highlights the potential for implementing optogenetics to drive nerve growth in specific cell populations.

• Publication year

  2015

• Venue

  Scientific Reports

• Publication date

  2015-05-18

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Engineering

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/srep09669PMID 25982506PMCID 4434892
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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