Ultrasound can modulate neuronal development: impact on neurite growth and cell body morphology

Neuronal development is known to be a dynamic process that can be modulated by presenting guidance cues to neuronal cells. We show that ultrasound, when applied at pulsed settings and with intensities slightly greater than clinical diagnosis levels, can potentially act as a repulsive cue for modulating neuronal growth dynamics. Using differentiated Neuro-2a cells as the model, we have examined in vitro how neuronal development can change during and after exposure to 1-MHz ultrasound for different acoustic settings. Neurite retraction and cell body shrinkage were found in neuronal cells over a 10-min exposure period with 1.168 W/cm(2) spatial-peak, time-averaged intensity (based on 0.84 MPa peak acoustic pressure, 100-cycle pulse duration, and 500-Hz pulse repetition frequency). These effects were found to result in instances of neuronal cell body displacement. The extent of the effects was dependent on acoustic intensity, with peak acoustic pressure being a more important contributing factor compared with pulse duration. The morphological changes were found to be non-destructive, in that post-exposure neurite outgrowth and neuritogenesis were respectively observed in neurite-bearing and neurite-less neuronal cells. Our results also showed that mechanotransduction might be involved in mediating ultrasound-neuron interactions, as the morphological changes were suppressed if stretch-activated ion channels were blocked or if calcium messenger ions were chelated. Overall, these findings suggest that ultrasound can potentially influence how neuronal cells develop through modifying their cytomechanical characteristics.