Page 352 - IJB-9-2

International Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Laser bioprinting of human iPSC-derived neural

stem cells and neurons: Effect on cell survival,
multipotency, differentiation, and neuronal

activity

Lothar Koch 1,2† *, Andrea Deiwick 1,2† , Jordi Soriano 3,4† , Boris Chichkov 1,2
1 Institut für Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany
2 NIFE—Niedersächsisches Zentrum für Biomedizintechnik, Implantatforschung und Entwicklung,
30625 Hannover, Germany
3 Departament de Física de la Matèria Condensada, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona,
Spain
4 Universitat de Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems (UBICS), Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

Generation of human neuronal networks by three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is
† These authors contributed equally promising for drug testing and hopefully will allow for the understanding of cellular
to this work. mechanisms in brain tissue. The application of neural cells derived from human
*Corresponding author: induced-pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) is an obvious choice, since hiPSCs provide
Lothar Koch access to cells unlimited in number and cell types that could be generated by
(koch@iqo.uni-hannover.de)
differentiation. The questions in this regard include which neuronal differentiation
Citation: Koch L, Deiwick A, stage is optimal for printing of such networks, and to what extent the addition of
Soriano J, et al., 2023, Laser
bioprinting of human iPSC-derived other cell types, especially astrocytes, supports network formation. These aspects
neural stem cells and neurons: are the focus of the present study, in which we applied a laser-based bioprinting
Effect on cell survival, multipotency, technique and compared hiPSC-derived neural stem cells (NSCs) with neuronal
differentiation, and neuronal activity.
Int J Bioprint. 9(2): 672. differentiated NSCs, with and without the inclusion of co-printed astrocytes. In
https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v9i2.672 this study, we investigated in detail the effects of cell types, printed droplet size,
and duration of differentiation before and after printing on viability, as well as
Received: September 24, 2022
Accepted: October 13, 2022 proliferation, stemness, differentiation potential, formation of dendritic extensions
Published Online: January 18, and synapses, and functionality of the generated neuronal networks. We found a
2023 significant dependence of cell viability after dissociation on differentiation stage,
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). but no impact of the printing process. Moreover, we observed a dependence of
This is an Open Access article the abundance of neuronal dendrites on droplet size, a marked difference between
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution printed cells and normal cell culture in terms of further differentiation of the cells,
License, permitting distribution especially differentiation into astrocytes, as well as neuronal network formation and
and reproduction in any medium, activity. Notably, there was a clear effect of admixed astrocytes on NSCs but not on
provided the original work is
properly cited. neurons.
Publisher’s Note: Whioce
Publishing remains neutral with Keywords: Bioprinting; Laser; Neurons; Neural stem cells; Synapse; Neuronal
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional networks; Collective neuronal activity
affiliations.

Volume 9 Issue 2 (2023) 344 https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v9i2.672