Differentiation of neural stem cells regulated by three-dimensional tissue shape

This paper describes the effect of three-dimensional (3D) tissue shape on differentiation ratio of neurons. We cultured mouse neural stem cells (mNSCs) in the closed agarose microchamber sealed with an agarose sheet. We succeeded in fabricating mNSC tissues of various 3D shapes in the closed agarose microchamber and induced differentiation of the lane-shaped mNSC tissues to neurons and glial cells. We confirmed that tissues of thin width and thickness have higher differentiation ratio of neurons than that of spherical-shaped tissue, by changing the width and thickness of the lane shaped tissues.