The behavior of neural stem cells on biodegradable synthetic polymers

The biocompatibility of polymer scaffolds as neural stem cell transplantation matrices has not yet been studied extensively. In this study, we evaluated the biocompatibility of various biodegradable polymers for neural stem cells. The biocompatibility tests were performed by culturing hippocampal progenitor cells (HiB5) on films of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), poly(L-lactide-co-epsilon-caprolactone) (PLCL) and poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) or in the presence of extracts from these polymers. Specifically, the viability, mitochondrial metabolic activity, proliferation, apoptosis and neurite out-growth of HiB5 cells were examined in biocompatibility tests. Among the tested polymers, PLGA performed best with respect to cell viability, mitochondrial metabolic activity and apoptotic activity. Compared to the other polymers, PLLA showed the worst results in all categories evaluated. PLGA also showed favorable results for neurite out-growth of HiB5 cells. The results of this study demonstrate the promising biocompatibility of PLGA as a scaffold for neural stem cell transplantation for nerve regeneration.