Hybrid graphene–Ceramic nanofibre network for spontaneous neural differentiation of stem cells

Jekaterina Kazantseva, Irina Hussainova, Roman Ivanov, Toomas Neuman, Michael Gasik*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A challenge in regenerative medicine is governed by the need to have control over the fate of stem cells that is regulated by the physical and chemical microenvironment in vitro and in vivo. The differentiation of the stem cells into specific lineages is commonly guided by use of specific culture media. For the first time, we demonstrate that human mesenchymal stem cells are capable of turning spontaneously towards neurogenic lineage when seeded on graphene-augmented, highly anisotropic ceramic nanofibres without special differentiation media, contrary to commonly thought requirement of ‘soft’ substrates for the same purpose. Furthermore, pro-inflammatory gene expression is simultaneously suppressed, and expression of factors promoting focal adhesion and monocytes taxis is upregulated. This opens new possibilities of using local topo-mechanical cues of the ‘graphenized’ scaffold surfaces to guide stem cell proliferation and differentiation, which can be used in studies of neurological diseases and cell therapy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number20170037
JournalInterface Focus
Volume8
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Jun 2018
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Ceramics
  • Differentiation
  • Graphene
  • Nanofibre
  • Scaffolds
  • Stem cells

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