The impact of electroconductive multifunctional composite nanofibrous scaffold on adipose-derived mesenchymal stem...

The development of tissue-engineered scaffolds with electrical properties is the primary motivation of novel regenerative medicine. Electroconductive scaffolds are designed to mimic the injured tissue environment's electrical properties and regulate cellular behavior - growth, proliferation, and differentiation - that could stimulate the injured nerve's regeneration.

We fabricated dedicated electroconductive scaffolds and customized an appropriate device with an external current supply to expose cells on the scaffold to electrical stimulation (ES). Next, we isolated rat adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) and performed in vitro experiments that combine cells, an electroconductive scaffold, NGF (nerve growth factor), and ES (90 mV/mm, constant, for four days). Finally, we checked cellular activity as proliferation, viability, morphology, the neurogenic differentiation potential of ASCs, cell alignment, and karyotype.

We observed that the electrical stimulation did not change the viability and chromosome stability of rat ASCs, but altered slightly proliferation compared to non-stimulated cells. The combined effect of a scaffold, NGF, and ES caused morphology changes and enhancement of ASCs neuronal differentiation as indicated in βIII-tubulin expression, actin organization, and upregulation of neurogenic gene expression.

We developed an electroconductive scaffold and customized device for in vitro study with many experimental variants. Based on our results, we presumed that the established study scheme - including an electroconductive scaffold, NGF and ES - is biocompatible and could guide ASCs to differentiate in neurogenic lineage, thus may be potentially applied in nerve injury regeneration.