title: The effect of the alignment of electrospun fibrous scaffolds on Schwann cell maturation.
abstract: Peripheral nerve regeneration can be enhanced by the stimulation of formation of bands of Büngner prior to implantation. Aligned electrospun poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) fibers were fabricated to test their potential to provide contact guidance to human Schwann cells. After 7 days of culture, cell cytoskeleton and nuclei were observed to align and elongate along the fiber axes, emulating the structure of bands of Büngner. Microarray analysis revealed a general down-regulation in expression of neurotrophin and neurotrophic receptors in aligned cells as compared to cells seeded on two-dimensional PCL film. Real-time-PCR analyses confirmed the up-regulation of early myelination marker, myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), and the down-regulation of NCAM-1, a marker of immature Schwann cells. Similar gene expression changes were also observed on cells cultured on randomly oriented PCL electrospun fibers. However, up-regulation of the myelin-specific gene, P0, was observed only on aligned electrospun fibers, suggesting the propensity of aligned fibers in promoting Schwann cell maturation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Sing Yian
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chew
authors.forename: Ruifa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mi
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoke
authors.forename: Kam W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Leong
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012583:Schwann Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D023822:Tissue Engineering
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers