The Evaluation Of Aligned Electrospun Polymethylmethacrylate Nano Fibers On The Directed Growth Of Rat Dorsal Root Ganglion Neurons

Constructing implantable cell/tissue scaffolds is one of the promisingstrategies after serious injury of peripheral nervous system and centralnervous system. In this study randomly oriented and alignedpolymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) electrospun nanofibers were fabricatedto culture purified rat dorsal root ganglion neurons (DRGn) and coculture itwith rat Schwann cells (SCs). Acceptable biocompatibility was proved ofPMMA nanofibers; through the expression of transfected GreenFluorescence Protein (GFP) reporting gene by lentivirus construct, DRGnwere shown capable to adhere to and grow on randomly oriented or alignednanofibers, and their topographic features could influence the alignmentand growth capacity of DRGn, on aligned nanofibers which could formedlonger and aligned neurites compared with neurons cultured on PMMAfilm and randomly oriented nanofibers; through analysis of the mergedimages of GFP fluorescence and the substrate fibers, and throughexamination of Scanning Electron Microscope, accurate relation wasconfirmed between neurites and particular substratum nanofibers, on whichneurites were found elongating along the cue of nanofibers, howeveraligned nanofibers seemed able to provide more support for DRGn thanrandomly oriented nanofibers; through the coculturing of DRGn and SCs on PMMA nanofibers, it was revealed that SCs and neurites could share theguidance cue of a particular fiber, and on aligned nanofibers they had morechance to form colocalization, which may favor the following processes ofmyelination. These results could enhance the understanding of alignedPMMA electrospun nanofibers as a potential implantable scaffold afterneural injury.