Oriented artificial nanofibers and laser induced periodic surface structures as substrates for Schwann cells alignment
Open Research Europe(2024)
Abstract
People with injuries to the peripheral nervous system, due to its poor
functional regeneration, suffer from paralysis of the facial muscles, fingers
and hands, or toes and feet, often for the rest of their lives. Therefore, to
improve patients' quality of life, there is an urgent need for conduits that
effectively support the healing of large defects in nerve pathways through
specific guidance of nerve cells. This paper describes two specific methods for
achieving directed growth of Schwann cells, a type of glial cells that can
support the regeneration of the nerve pathway by guiding the neuronal axons in
the direction of their alignment. One method implies the exposure of a
poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) foil to a KrF* laser beam, that renders a
nanorippled surface topography. The other method uses aligned polyamide-6
(PA-6) nanofibers produced via electrospinning on a very fast rotating
structured collector, which enables easy nanofiber detachment, without
additional effort. Schwann cells growth on these substrates was inspected after
one week of cultivation by means of scanning electron microscope (SEM). For
both methods we show that Schwann cells grow in a certain direction,
predetermined by nanoripples and nanofibers orientation. In contrast, cells
cultivated onto unstructured surfaces or randomly oriented nanofibers, show an
omnidirectional growth behavior.
MoreTranslated text
AI Read Science
Must-Reading Tree
Example
![](https://originalfileserver.aminer.cn/sys/aminer/pubs/mrt_preview.jpeg)
Generate MRT to find the research sequence of this paper
Chat Paper
Summary is being generated by the instructions you defined