Abstract
The application of 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) hydrogels in preparing defined culture substrata for the study of inner ear and statoacoustic ganglion-target tissue explants was evaluated. Addition of extracellular matrix proteins (collagen type I or fibronectin) to the HEMA hydrogels was effective in promoting nerve fiber outgrowth from statoacoustic ganglion-target tissue explants. These results although preliminary, demonstrate the property of HEMA hydrogels to embed extracellular matrix components. This ability of the hydrogel culture substratum may be important for the assessment of neurite-promoting activities of extracellular matrix components (e.g. heparan sulfate proteoglycan, laminin, etc.) on in vitro developing statoacoustic ganglion neurons.
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