Regulating Growth Cone Motility and Axon Growth by Manipulating Targeted Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles

  • Tanchen Ren
  • Jeffrey L. Goldberg
  • Michael B. Steketee
Protocol
First Online:
Part of the Neuromethods book series (NM, volume 135)

Abstract

Central nervous system (CNS) neurons fail to regenerate after injury or disease due, in part, to a reduced intrinsic axon growth ability, which is regulated at the growth cone. Recently, we showed that growth cone motility can be regulated by applying a magnetic field to superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) targeted either intracellularly to signaling endosomes or extracellularly to cell surface receptors. By applying mechanical forces to extracellular SPIONs, filopodia can be elongated and the rate and the direction controlled. Here, we describe the methods for each of these approaches with additional notes on important caveats and experimental design considerations. These methods offer new approaches to studying growth cone motility and axon growth biology, expanding our knowledge and thus our ability to develop new therapies to promote axon regeneration after nervous system trauma or disease.

Key words

SPION Magnetic nanoparticles Signaling endosomes Growth cone Filopodia Axon regeneration 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  • Tanchen Ren
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
  • Jeffrey L. Goldberg
    • 4
  • Michael B. Steketee
    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
  1. 1.Department of Ophthalmology, School of MedicineUniversity of PittsburghPittsburghUSA
  2. 2.McGowan Institute for Regenerative MedicineUniversity of PittsburghPittsburghUSA
  3. 3.Center for Neuroscience, University of PittsburghUniversity of PittsburghPittsburghUSA
  4. 4.Department of OphthalmologyStanford UniversityPalo AltoUSA

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