Abstract: Biophysical characteristics of engineered scaffolds such as topography and electroconductivity have shown potentially beneficial effects on stem cell morphology, proliferation, and differentiation toward neural cells. In this study, we fabricated a conductive hydrogel made from chitosan (CS) and polyaniline (PANI) with induced PC12 cell surface topography using a cell imprinting technique to provide both topographical properties and conductivity in a platform. The engineered hydrogel's potential for neural priming of rat adipose-derived stem cells (rADSCs) was determined in vitro. The biomechanical analysis revealed that the electrical conductivity, stiffness, and hydrophobicity of flat (F) and cell-imprinted (CI) substrates increased with increased PANI content in the CS/PANI scaffold. The conductive substrates exhibited a lower degradation rate compared to non-conductive substrates. According to data obtained from F-actin staining and AFM micrographs, both CI(CS) and CI(CS-PANI) substrates induced the morphology of rADSCs from their irregular shape (on flat substrates) into the elongated and bipolar shape of the neuronal-like PC12 cells. Immunostaining analysis revealed that both CI(CS) and CI (CS-PANI) significantly upregulated the expression of GFAP and MAP2, two neural precursor-specific genes, in rADSCs compared with flat substrates. Although the results reveal that both cell-imprinted topography and electrical conductivity affect the neural lineage differentiation, some data demonstrate that the topography effects of the cell-imprinted surface have a more critical role than electrical conductivity on neural priming of ADSCs. The current study provides new insight into the engineering of scaffolds for nerve tissue engineering
Template and target information: cells, stem cells