Electrospun biomaterial scaffolds with varied topographies for neuronal differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells
Date
2014-12-30
Authors
Mohtaram, Nima Khadem
Ko, Junghyuk
King, Craig
Sun, Lin
Muller, Nathan
Jun, Martin Byung-Guk
Willerth, Stephanie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
In this study, we investigated the effect of micro and nanoscale scaffold topography on
promoting neuronal differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and
directing the resulting neuronal outgrowth in an organized manner. We used melt electrospinning
to fabricate poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds with loop mesh and biaxial aligned microscale
topographies. Biaxial aligned microscale scaffolds were further functionalized with retinoic acid
releasing PCL nanofibers using solution electrospinning. These scaffolds were then seeded with
neural progenitors derived from human iPSCs. We found that smaller diameter loop mesh
scaffolds (43.7 ± 3.9 μm) induced higher expression of the neural markers Nestin and Pax6
compared to thicker diameter loop mesh scaffolds (85 ± 4 μm). The loop mesh and biaxial
aligned scaffolds guided the neurite outgrowth of human iPSCs along the topographical features
with the maximum neurite length of these cells being longer on the biaxial aligned scaffolds.
Finally, our novel bimodal scaffolds also supported the neuronal differentiation of human iPSCs
as they presented both physical and chemical cues to these cells, encouraging their
differentiation. These results give insight into how physical and chemical cues can be used to
engineer neural tissue.
Description
Preprint article.
Keywords
human induced pluripotent stem cells, melt electrospinning, solution electrospinning, scaffold topography, neural tissue engineering
Citation
Mohtaram N.K. et al. (2015) Electrospun biomaterial scaffolds with varied topographies for neuronal differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research. Part A. 103 (8) p.2591-2601.