3D printed neural tissues with in situ optical dopamine sensors

Jianfeng Li; Armin Reimers; Ka My Dang; Michael G K Brunk; Jonas Drewes; Ulrike M Hirsch; Christian Willems; Christian E H Schmelzer; Thomas Groth; Ali Shaygan Nia; Xinliang Feng; Rainer Adelung; Wesley D Sacher; Fabian Schütt; Joyce K S Poon

doi:10.1016/j.bios.2022.114942

3D printed neural tissues with in situ optical dopamine sensors

Biosens Bioelectron. 2023 Feb 15:222:114942. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2022.114942. Epub 2022 Nov 26.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, Halle, 06120, Germany; Max Planck-University of Toronto Centre for Neural Science and Technology, Canada. Electronic address: jianfeli@mpi-halle.mpg.de.
² Institute for Materials Science, Kiel University, 24143, Kiel, Germany.
³ Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, Halle, 06120, Germany; Max Planck-University of Toronto Centre for Neural Science and Technology, Canada.
⁴ Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS, Walter-Hülse-Straße 1, 06120, Halle, Germany.
⁵ Department Biomedical Materials, Institute of Pharmacy, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06120, Halle, Germany.
⁶ Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, Halle, 06120, Germany; Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry & Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, 01062, Germany.
⁷ Institute for Materials Science, Kiel University, 24143, Kiel, Germany; Kiel Nano, Surface and Interface Science KiNSIS, Kiel University, Christian-Albrechts-Platz 4, D-24118 Kiel, Germany.
⁸ Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, Halle, 06120, Germany; Max Planck-University of Toronto Centre for Neural Science and Technology, Canada; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, 10 King's College Road, Toronto, Canada. Electronic address: joyce.poon@mpi-halle.mpg.de.

PMID: 36493722
DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2022.114942

Abstract

Engineered neural tissues serve as models for studying neurological conditions and drug screening. Besides observing the cellular physiological properties, in situ monitoring of neurochemical concentrations with cellular spatial resolution in such neural tissues can provide additional valuable insights in models of disease and drug efficacy. In this work, we demonstrate the first three-dimensional (3D) tissue cultures with embedded optical dopamine (DA) sensors. We developed an alginate/Pluronic F127 based bio-ink for human dopaminergic brain tissue printing with tetrapodal-shaped-ZnO microparticles (t-ZnO) additive as the DA sensor. DA quenches the autofluorescence of t-ZnO in physiological environments, and the reduction of the fluorescence intensity serves as an indicator of the DA concentration. The neurons that were 3D printed with the t-ZnO showed good viability, and extensive 3D neural networks were formed within one week after printing. The t-ZnO could sense DA in the 3D printed neural network with a detection limit of 0.137 μM. The results are a first step toward integrating tissue engineering with intensiometric biosensing for advanced artificial tissue/organ monitoring.

Keywords: 3D bioprinting; Bioink development; Biosensing; Dopamine; Neural tissue engineering; t-ZnO.

MeSH terms

Bioprinting*
Biosensing Techniques*
Dopamine
Humans
Printing, Three-Dimensional
Tissue Engineering / methods
Tissue Scaffolds / chemistry
Zinc Oxide*

Substances

Dopamine
Zinc Oxide