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International Journal of Bioprinting Laser bioprinting of hiPSC-derived neural stem cells and neurons

Figure 10. Impact of astrocytes on functional connectivity. (A) Example of the functional organization of an NSC culture. The left panel shows the adjacency
matrix with boxes along the diagonal that correspond to functional communities. The central panel shows the corresponding network map, with neurons indi-
cated as dots and color-coded identically as in the matrix. The larger the diameter of a dot, the higher its connectivity. Neurons belonging to a given community
extend all over the culture, indicating that neurons connect both at short and long length scales. The right panel provides an alternative topological representa-
tion of the functional communities, in which neurons are grouped by community, and communities separated according to their coupling within the network.
Orange and black communities are relatively isolated, while the pink one is strongly coupled. (B) Comparison of two network measures, global efficiency G eff
(left) and community statistic Q (right), for cultures with and without astrocytes. G is significantly higher for cultures with 50% astrocytes, indicating an
eff
excessive cohesion of the functional network and that is a consequence of the elevated bursting observed in these cultures. Q gradually decays with the number
of astrocytes, indicating a progressive strengthening of network integration. Significance analyzed by a multiple comparison test in ANOVA. *P < 0.05.
a consequence of the elevated bursting observed in these 4. Discussion
cultures (Figure 9). The community statistic Q, which captures
the number and isolation of communities in the networks, The main objectives of this study were the investigation
gradually decreased with the percentage of added astrocytes, of 3D laser-based bioprinting of neural constructs
indicating that astrocytes increased network integration. and to delineate whether NSCs are preferable over

Volume 9 Issue 2 (2023) 362 https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v9i2.672