In Vitro Differentiation of Human iPS Cells into Neural like Cells on a Biomimetic Polyurea

Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have the pluripotency to differentiate into all three germ layers in vitro and have been considered potent candidates for regenerative medicine as an unlimited source of cells for therapeutic applications. Neural tissue engineering is an important area of research in the field of tissue-engineering especially for neurodegenerative disease. Here, we investigated the use of poly lactic acid/gelatin (PLA/gelatin) scaffold as three-dimensional (3D) system which increase neural cell differentiation. Through neural induction, neural-like cells (NLCs) were derived from hiPSCs on nanofibrous PLA/gelatin scaffold. Enhanced numbers of neural structures and staining of neural markers were observed with hiPS cell-seeded nanofibrous scaffolds when compared with control medium. The results revealed that hiPSCs attach and grow on the nanofibrous PLA/gelatin scaffold, and hiPSCs cultured on scaffold have the potential to differentiate in neuronal cells in the presence of growth factors. The result of this study may have impact in tissue engineering and cells-base therapy of neurodegenerative diseases and have a great potential for wide application.