Cell Cycle Analysis of Rat Schwann Cells on Chitosan Scaffolds by Flow Cytometry

The fine combination of biomaterial and essential cells determines a successful artificial graft. With high biocompatibility, chitosan is a choice of materials for regeneration medicine. In the peripheral nervous system, Schwann cells are critical for nerve regeneration. Schwann cells not only help to conduct the nerve pulse but also guide the nerve extension, especially the injured nerve for recovery. Studies showed that chitosan can be a bridge material for damaged nerve regeneration. The interactions between chitosan and Schwann cells may provide important information for designing the chitosan grafts applied in medical applications. For this purpose, the chitoson was made into conduits by lyophilization. The conduit has porous 3D scaffolds and seeded with rat Schwann cells. The harvested cells were labeled with PI fluorescent dye and analyzed with flow cytometry. The results showed that the rates of DNA replication (S-phase) and cell division (G2 phase) of the cells grew on chitosan scaffolds were higher than the ones grew on the plane substrate. This indicates that the cells grew on chitosan scaffolds were more active than those on the plane substrate in cell proliferation, and the biocompatibility of chitosan can be sustained in this quantitative analysis. Therefore, chitosan scaffolds are efficient for cell expansion of rat Schwann cells and may be beneficial for the purpose of tissue engineering. This study proves that cell cycle analysis is a new point of view in disclosing the cell-material interactions.