Investigation of Persistent Photoconductivity of Gallium Nitride Semiconductor and Differentiation of Primary Neural Stem Cells

A gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor is one of the most promising materials integrated into biomedical devices to play the roles of connecting, monitoring, and manipulating the activity of biological components, due to its excellent photoelectric properties, chemical stability, and biocompatibility. In this work, it was found that the photogenerated free charge carriers of the GaN substrate, as an exogenous stimulus, served to promote neural stem cells (NSCs) to differentiate into neurons. This was observed through the systematic investigation of the effect of the persistent photoconductivity (PPC) of GaN on the differentiation of primary NSCs from the embryonic rat cerebral cortex. NSCs were directly cultured on the GaN surface with and without ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, with a control sample consisting of tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) in the presence of fetal bovine serum (FBS) medium. Through optical microscopy, the morphology showed a greater number of neurons with the branching structures of axons and dendrites on GaN with UV irradiation. The immunocytochemical results demonstrated that GaN with UV irradiation could promote the NSCs to differentiate into neurons. Western blot analysis showed that GaN with UV irradiation significantly upregulated the expression of two neuron-related markers, βIII-tubulin (Tuj-1) and microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP-2), suggesting that neurite formation and the proliferation of NSCs during differentiation were enhanced by GaN with UV irradiation. Finally, the results of the Kelvin probe force microscope (KPFM) experiments showed that the NSCs cultured on GaN with UV irradiation displayed about 50 mV higher potential than those cultured on GaN without irradiation. The increase in cell membrane potential may have been due to the larger number of photogenerated free charges on the GaN surface with UV irradiation. These results could benefit topical research and the application of GaN as a biomedical material integrated into neural interface systems or other bioelectronic devices.