Evaluation and characterization of neural differentiation in polymeric scaffolds for medular regeneration

Abstract

Tissue therapy in cases of spinal cord injury is of great importance for the development of treatments aimed at nerve regeneration. One of the main methods is the use of polymeric scaffolds, these are biomaterials structures that promote cell support and stimulate the differentiation of these in injured sites. However, cellular responses may vary according to the macro and microstructure of these materials. Regarding macro configurations, one can obtain scaffolds ranging from films, cylinders, tubes, channels, and even hydrogels. In addition, the microstructural conformations may be unique, allowing variations in the mean pore diameter, hydrophilicity, composition and other surface characteristics of the biomaterials. However, these properties need to be evaluated in vitro before proceeding to the in vivo application. For this work four types of polymers has been tested: I) polycaprolactone (PCL); II) fibrous polycaprolactone (PCLf); III) poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA); IV) chitosan (CHI) in: a) VERO cell cultures for cytotoxicity analysis; B) mixed primary cultures of spinal cord of neonatal rats with 0-3 postnatal days (P0-P3) to evaluate adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. This study aim to evaluate and characterize the differentiation of spinal cord cells associated with the biomaterials, thus allowing to know characteristics preferable to spinal regeneration.