Neuronal cultures grown on patterned substrates: impact of neuron’s origin

Abstract

We studied the dynamics observed in neuronal cultures derived from two different rodent species. Neurons in culture grew on a topographically-modulated substrate with a fractal-like shape that facilitated an intricate connectivity between neurons. We observed through fluorescence imaging that this constraint affected the activity of the network, with substrates with fractal pattern substantially reducing the propagation velocity of activity in the network. Additionally, neuronal cultures from mice exhibited greater activity richness and lower velocity than rats’ ones. To further explore these results, we employed power spectrum analyses on the recorded data and concluded that it only provided a qualitative insight, without capturing key characteristics. Finally, simulations were conducted to show that the behavior of the two rodent species could be attributed to differences in axonal length under identical maturation conditions