Effect of topography of an electrospun nanofiber on modulation of activity of primary rat astrocytes

Several biomaterials for neural tissue engineering have recently been proposed for regeneration of damaged tissue and promotion of axonal guidance following CNS injury. When implanted into damaged nerve tissue, biomaterials should favorably induce cell infiltration and axonal guiding while suppressing inflammation. Nanofiber scaffolds are regarded as adequate materials to meet the above requirements; however, most studies of these materials conducted to date have targeted neuronal cells, not glial cells, despite their important function in the injured CNS. In this study, an electrospun nanofibrous scaffold of polycaprolactone (PCL) was investigated with respect to its topographic effects on astrocyte behavior and expression of GFAP. The results revealed that the PCL nanofiber topograghy promoted adhesion, but GFAP expression was down-regulated, leading to reduced astrocytes activity. Taken together, these results indicate that the topographic structure of electrospun nanofibers provides a scaffold that is favorable to neural regeneration via alleviation of astrogliosis. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights. reserved.