Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation to Cardiomyocytes on Nanostructured Scaffolds for Myocardial Tissue Regeneration

Abstract

With recent advances in developmental and stem cell biology, the application of stem cells in tissue engineering has received great attention and designing of suitable scaffolds to support cell growth, differentiation, and functional tissue organization are advancing toward effective tissue regeneration. Regeneration of the infarct myocardium after myocardial infarction (MI), which is caused by the abrupt occlusion of one or more of the coronary arteries in the heart is one of the most demanding aspects in tissue engineering. Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) can differentiate into many cell types and has been considered as a cell source for cardiac regeneration. In this regard, nanofibrous scaffolds received great attention in tissue engineering field due to their similarity in morphology to native extracellular matrix (ECM) and various scaffolds have been studied as cardiac patches over the previous years. In this study poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL)/gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds were fabricated by electrospinning and embroyonic bodies (EBs) were formed using ESCs seeded on the nanofibrous scaffolds. SEM images revealed cell outgrowth from EBs and the spreading of cells over the nanofibrous scaffolds were observed. Immunocytochemistry results showed the cellular expression of cardiac proteins, namely α-actinin and connexin 43 on the nanofibrous scaffolds indicating the differentiation of EBs to cardiomyocytes. Results of our study showed that PCL/gelatin nanofibrous scaffolds can act as a promising substrate for differentiation of EBs to cardiomyocytes and could be applied for cardiac tissue engineering.