Characterization of neural stem cells on electrospun poly(ε- caprolactone) submicron scaffolds: Evaluating their potential in neural tissue engineering

Abstract

Development of biomaterials with specific characteristics to influence cell behaviour has played an important role in exploiting strategies to promote nerve regeneration. The effect of three-dimensional (3D) non-woven electrospun poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds on the behaviour of rat brain-derived neural stem cells (NSCs) is reported. The interaction of NSCs on the randomly orientated submicron (PCL) fibrous scaffolds, with an average fibre diameter of 750 ± 100 nm, was investigated. The PCL scaffolds were modified with ethylenediamine (ED) to determine if amino functionalisation and changes in surface tension of the fibrous scaffolds affected the proliferation and differentiation char..