A Co-Culture Model for Nanotoxicity and Tissue Engineering Studies

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Cell model systems in vitro play vital roles in recent advances in toxicological and tissue engineering research. They are particularly versatile in facilitating signaling and related mechanistic studies. Although the 3-D cell models better simulate the in vivo cellular architecture in tissues and organs, the advances made with such models were largely based on studies employing only a single cell type. Thus, there is a need for developing more co-culture cell systems because they provide different structural and functional perspectives that single-cell-type models do not offer. Our work on cerebrocortical neurons co-cultured on a monolayer of astrocytes reveals that neurons are more susceptible to manganese toxicity than astrocytes even though the astrocytes appear to provide some protective effect on the neurons in co-culture. We have adopted a similar approach to develop a co-culture cell model for short- and longer-term nanotoxicity and tissue engineering studies. Our co-culture model consists of a monolayer of human astrocytoma U87 (astrocytes-like) cells onto which we seed human neuroblastoma SK-N-SH (neurons-like) cells. We have characterized and optimized the conditions whereby these two cell types could be co-cultured and have employed this co-culture model to further elucidate the cytotoxicity of metallic oxide nanoparticles.

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Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Nanotechnology 2008: Life Sciences, Medicine & Bio Materials – Technical Proceedings of the 2008 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 2
Published: June 1, 2008
Pages: 164 - 167
Industry sectors: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing | Personal & Home Care, Food & Agriculture
Topic: Environmental Health & Safety of Nanomaterials
ISBN: 978-1-4200-8504-4