Innovation in neuronal cell culture: from adhesion to maturation, chitosan promotes developing nervous system

The extracellular matrix plays a pivotal role during nervous system development, offering adhesion points for neuronal growth and differentiation, as well as for nervous tissue formation. For that reason, neuronal functional and morphological in vitro studies have been performed functionalizing culture supports by extracellular matrix components or synthetic biopolymers. In this study, chitosan was validated as an alternative adhesion. Primary neurons and neurons differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells were plated onto chitosan and standard adhesion factors modified supports. The development of individual cells was followed at daily intervals until both axons and dendrites had been established; electrophysiological behavior was studied to validate the ability of chitosan to sustain long-term maturation.