organoids

Early Geometric Confinement Influences Rosette Morphology and Maintenance in Human Cerebral Organoids

Early Geometric Confinement Influences Rosette Morphology and Maintenance in Human Cerebral Organoids

There is an increasing appreciation of the influence of physical factors on neural stem cell biology. 2D experiments have provided compelling evidence that neural stem cell development is directed in part by mechanobiological influences, which refer to the stimuli a cell experiences as a result of movement, geometry or substrate material. As a result, human cerebral organoids are an exciting model to expand on such mechanobiological studies. Their three-dimensional nature makes them suitable  for exploring the potential impacts of physical conditions such as spatial geometry and mechanical stress, capturing the complex progression of stem and progenitor cells into neurons and more accurately mimicking in vivo conditions. In this study, we leverage these strengths by using human cerebral organoids to explore how physical constraint influences the morphological development of human brain tissue. Cerebral organoid precursors were seeded into geometrically distinct microwells and allowed to develop until they exceeded the size of their wells, after which they were released from the constraints. These samples were then allowed to freely mature for a maximum time of 40 days post-confinement, after which they were stained with fluorescent antibodies to highlight neural progenitor cell presence and organization. We report that organoids derived from precursors, confined in microwells with four convex points, exhibited deterioration of stem cell structures known as ‘neural rosettes’ at a rate faster than those cultured in round microwells. Our findings suggest that microtissue geometry may inhibit neural progenitor proliferation and/or organization, resulting in smaller rosettes and a loss of rosette maintenance, even after organoids are removed from confinement. Further investigation is needed to dissect and decouple the potential effects geometry has on paracrine morphogen release and diffusion, mechanical stress and strain and the time points where these effects have the greatest biological impact.