Thermal-Corrosion-Free Electrode-Integrated Cell Chip for Promotion of Electrically Stimulated Neurite Outgrowth

In neural tissue engineering, the use of electrical stimulation has been proposed to cure patients with damaged nervous systems. Electrical stimulation can promote nerve cell differentiation and regeneration. Due to certain properties of electrode materials, including thermal problems and corrosion, the wide application of electrical stimulation has been hindered. Here, we fabricated an electro-spun, nano-porous, membrane-based, electrode-embedded cell chip capable of electrical stimulation of cells. To provide conductivity on an electro-spun nano-porous membrane, a 1.0 µm-thick layer of Au was deposited by electron beam evaporation. The electrode had a length and height of 4 and 0.025 cm, respectively, and was fixed to the inner walls of transparent polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cell chip channels. For 5 days, when 1 kHz of electrical stimulation was given at 50 and 100 mVpp, the promotion of neurite outgrowth of neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells was significantly exhibited, while no thermal problems or corrosions were detected in the electrodes. Furthermore, at 100 mVpp of electrical stimulation, not only neurite outgrowth but also secondary branch induction was observed. We believe that the newly proposed cell chip can be applied to the study of neuronal differentiation and regeneration with stable and controllable electrical stimulation.