Controlled lateral packing of insulin monolayers influences neuron polarization in solid-supported cultures

GRASSO, ERNESTO; RAFAEL GUSTAVO OLIVEIRA; OKSDATH, MARIANA; QUIROGA, SANTIAGO; MAGGIO, B.

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 vol. 107 p. 59 - 59

eurons are highly polarized cells, composed of one axon and several branching dendrites. One important issue in neurobiology is to understand the molecular factors that determine the neuron to develop polarized structures. A particularly early event, in neurons that do not yet exhibit a discernible axon, is the segregation of activatable IGF-1 (Insulin like Growth Factor-1) receptors in one neurite. This receptor can be activated by insulin in bulk. Nevertheless, it is not known if changes of the organization of insulin as a monomolecular film can affect the induction of neuron polarization. In this work we developed two kind of solid-supported  Langmuir-Blodgett insulin nanofilms. Hyppocampal pyramidal neurons, in early stage of differentiation, were cultured onto the substrates and polarization was studied after 24 hs by confocal microscopy. Also we used surface reflection interference contrast microscopy (SRIC) to study attachment patterns and morphology of growth cones. We observe