3D Tissue Models with Penetrating Sensory Neurons Towards Innervated Cultured Skin

In this work, we proposed a 3D tissue model with vertically penetrating sensory neurons. To mimic the sensory neuron structure in vertebrate animals, the spheroid containing dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons is seeded on one side of the 3D collagen/Matrigel and penetrates and extends through the center hole to reach the opposite side. As results, the sensory neurons penetrated the 3D collagen/Matrigel through the center hole. Most importantly, the neural reactions to capsaicin and KCl were observed by calcium imaging. We believe that the 3D tissue model with penetrating sensory neurons is promising to serve as the sensing skin model for human-like robots, disease models, and drug testing.