Fig. 1: Aldehydes are produced following concussion-like impact in primary neurons growing in a corticomimetic scaffold.

A Formulation of corticomimetic scaffold with crosslinked collagen exterior, and collagen interior containing primary mouse neurons. The scaffold was impacted with a concussion-like force followed by confocal microscopy with an aldehyde-binding fluorophore 5MeONA₃. B Young’s Modulus of the corticomimetic scaffold with two different sized interior plugs compared to a murine cortical punch. Data are shown in a box plot with individual values, n = 5 per group, p < 0.05. C Confocal microscope images showing NeuO fluorescent staining (top) of primary mouse cortical neurons seven days after seeding into corticomimetic scaffold to confirm differentiation of neurons. Differential interference contrast (DIC; bottom) shows elongation of cells within 3D scaffold. Scale bar = 50 µM. D Evaluation of cell death at three- and seven-days post-seeding of primary mouse cortical neurons into corticomimetic scaffold. Scale bar = 200 µM. E Representative confocal images of primary neurons pre- (left) and within 5 min post- (right) concussion-like impact after incubation with 5MeONA₃ for fluorescent staining of aldehydes (top) and DIC of cells showing morphological changes pre- and post-impact. Scale bar = 20 µM.