Oriented growth of rat Schwann cells on aligned electrospun poly(methyl methacrylate) nanofibers

Abstract

Transplanted Schwann cells have the potential to serve as a support for regenerating neurites after spinal cord injury. However, implanted Schwann cells die off rapidly once transplanted partly owing to the absence of a proper matrix support, with a glia scar and a cavity being present instead at the injury site. For this report, we evaluated aligned electrospun poly(methyl methacrylate) nanofibers as a Schwann cell-loading scaffold in vitro. By monitoring the fluorescence of green fluorescence protein-containing Schwann cells cultured on nanofibers, we found that aligned nanofibers provided better support for the cells than did non-aligned nanofibers. The cells elongated along the long axes of the aligned nanofibers and formed longer cell processes than when the substrate was non-aligned nanofibers. By coculturing Schwann cells with dorsal root ganglion neurons, it was also found that Schwann cells and neurites of dorsal root ganglion neurons could share and both elongate along the orientation of aligned nanofibers and thus they had a higher chance of colocalization than cocultured on film and non-aligned fibers, which might be beneficial to the ensuring process of myelination. The results of the study indicate that aligned electrospun nanofibers may serve as a Schwann cell-loading scaffold for future implantation research.