Silicate Microfiber Scaffolds Support the Formation and Expansion of the Cortical Neuronal Layer of Cerebral Organoids With a Sheet-Like Configuration

Cerebral organoids (COs) are derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells in vitro and mimic the features of the human fetal brain. The development of COs is largely dependent on "self-organization" mechanisms, in which differentiating cells committed to cortical cells autonomously organize into the cerebral cortex-like tissue. However, extrinsic manipulation of their morphology, including size and thickness, remains challenging. In this study, we discovered that silicate microfiber scaffolds could support the formation of cortical neuronal layers and successfully generated cortical neuronal layers, which are 9 times thicker than conventional COs, in 70 days. These cortical neurons in the silicate microfiber layer were differentiated in a fetal brain-like lamination pattern. While these cellular characteristics such as cortical neurons and neural stem/progenitor cells were like those of conventional COs, the cortical neuronal layers were greatly thickened in sheet-like configuration. Moreover, the cortical neurons in the scaffolds showed spontaneous electrical activity. We concluded that silicate microfiber scaffolds support the formation of the cortical neuronal layers of COs without disturbing self-organization-driven corticogenesis. The extrinsic manipulation of the formation of the cortical neuronal layers of COs may be useful for the research of developmental mechanisms or pathogenesis of the human cerebral cortex, particularly for the development of regenerative therapy and bioengineering.