Abstract
Peripheral nerve injuries are serious traumas resulting in loss of motor and sensory functions of nerves. The post-traumatic neuropathies are often chronic and mostly resistant to current treatments. Our objective is to develop new strategies to regenerate nerve after trauma by biomimetic approaches and go towards in vitro neurogenesis. For this we use neural crest derived human multipotent dental pulp stem cells (hDPSC) in co-culture with sensory neurons from mice dorsal root ganglia (DRG), and an in vitro neurogenic differentiation of hDPSC [3].In order to explore nanomechanical and morphological characteristics of human DPSC and mouse DRG neurons atomic force microscopy was employed. We have shown that the mechanical properties of the soma and sub cellular growth cone regions correlate well with the amount, organization and dynamics of the underlying cytoskeletal structure [1,2]. Here we present preliminary data about hDPSC in co-culture, with mDRG neurons and during an in vitro neurogenic differentiation gathered by nanomechanical mapping.[1] O. Benzina, V. Szabo, O. Lucas, M-b. Saab, T. Cloitre, F. Scamps, C. Gergely and M. Martin (2013) Changes induced by peripheral nerve injury in the morphology and nanomechanics of sensory neurons, J. Biomedical Optics 18(10)[2] M. Martin, O.Benzina, V. Szabó, A. G. Végh, O. Lucas, T. Cloitre, F. Scamps and C. Gergely (2013) Morphology and Nanomechanics of Sensory Neurons Growth Cones following Peripheral Nerve Injury, Plos One , 8 (2)[3] M. Király, B. Porcsalmy, A. Pataki, K. Kádár, M. Jelitai, B. Molnár, P. Hermann, I. Gera, WD. Grimm, B. Ganss, A. Zsembery, G. Varga, (2009) Simultaneous PKC and cAMP activation induces differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells into functionally active neurons, Neurochem. Int. 55 (323-332)