Interaction of iPSC-derived neural stem cells on poly(L-lactic acid) nanofibrous scaffolds for possible use in neural tissue engineering

Abstract

Tissue engineering is a rapidly growing technological area for the regeneration and reconstruction of damage to the central nervous system. By combining seed cells with appropriate biomaterial scaffolds, tissue engineering has the ability to improve nerve regeneration and functional recovery. in the present study, mouse induced pluripotent stem cells (iPScs) were generated from mouse embryonic fbroblasts (MEFs) with the non-integrating episomal vectors pceP4-eo2S-et2K and pceP4-mir-302-367 cluster, and differentiated into neural stem cells (nScs) as transplanting cells. electrospinning was then used to fabricate randomly oriented poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) nanofbers and aligned PLLA nanofbers and assessed their cytocompatibility and neurite guidance effect with iPSc-derived nScs (inScs). the results demonstrated that non-integrated iPScs were effectively generated and differentiated into iNSCs. PLLA nanofber scaffolds were able to promote the adhesion, growth, survival and proliferation of the inScs. furthermore, compared with randomly oriented PLLA nanofbers, the aligned PLLA nanofbers greatly directed neurite outgrowth from the iNSCs and signifcantly promoted neurite growth along the nanofbrous alignment. Overall, these fndings indicate the feasibility of using PLLA nanofber scaffolds in combination with inScs in vitro and support their potential for use in nerve tissue engineering.