Research Mentor Name
Marly Coe
Research Mentor Email Address
marly.coe@tufts.edu
Institution / Department
Tufts University Department of Biomedical Engineering
Document Type
Research Abstract
Research Type
basicbio
Level of Research
no
Abstract
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes permanent cell death and can lead to long-term cognitive dysfunction, with no available treatments to repair the damaged brain tissue. Methods to track and understand TBI in humans are severely limited by the inaccessibility of living brain tissue, creating a need for in vitro model systems to study cellular mechanisms of degeneration and regeneration following injury. Here we describe methods to establish a 3D human brain tissue model, consisting of a silk-collagen composite scaffold seeded with human neurons, astrocytes, and microglia, to study neuro-regeneration after TBI. Step-by-step fabrication, injury, and analytical assessments of the 3D “triculture” system are described. Using this tissue model system, we demonstrate that glial cells promote regeneration of neuronal networks within the injury site over several weeks post-injury. Further, we found that regenerating networks in the 3D triculture tissues did not secrete early markers of neurodegenerative disease, but displayed signs of excitatory/inhibitory imbalance. The model system includes mechanical stability that enables physiologically relevant impact injury and long-term culture capability, as well as a modular design that allows tunability of cell contents, extracellular matrix composition, and scaffold properties. Further studies using this regenerative human in vitro platform could inform future reparative treatments to improve long-term TBI patient outcomes.
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
Recommended Citation
Coe, Marly; Rosenfeld, Sydni; Byrne, Celia; Liaudanskaya, Volha; and Kaplan, David, "Methods for a Bioengineered 3D Human Brain-like Tissue Model of Neuro-regeneration After Traumatic Brain Injury" (2025). Medical Student Research Symposium. 371.
https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/som_srs/371
Comments
The authors thank Dr. Dana Cairns for providing the hiNSCs used throughout this study, as well as the Tufts Advanced Microscopic Imaging Core staff for training and assistance with the confocal microscope. Figure 1b,c were made using BioRender.com.