Comparison of random and aligned PCL nanofibrous electrospun scaffolds on cardiomyocyte differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells

Cardiomyocytes have small potentials for renovation and proliferation in adult life. The most challenging goal in the field of cardiovascular tissue engineering is the creation of an engineered heart muscle. Tissue engineering with a combination of stem cells and nanofibrous scaffolds has attracted interest with regard to Cardiomyocyte creation applications. Human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are good candidate for use in stem cell-based clinical therapies. They could be cultured and differentiated into several lineages such as cartilage, bone, muscle, neuronal cells, etc. In the present study, human ASCs were cultured on random and aligned polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers. The capacity of random and aligned PCL nanofibrous scaffolds to support stem cells for the proliferation was studied by MTT assay. The cardiomyocyte phenotype was first identified by morphological studies and Immunocytochemistry (ICC) staining, and then confirmed with evaluation of specific cardiac related gene markers expression by real-time RT-PCR. The proliferation rate of ASCs on aligned nanofibrous PCL was significantly higher than random nanofibrous PCL. ICC and morphological studies results confirmed cardiomyocyte differentiation of ASCs on the nanofibrous scaffolds. In addition, the expression rate of cardiovascular related gene markers such as GATA-4, α-MHC and Myo-D was significantly increased in aligned nanofibrous PCL compared with random nanofibrous PCL. Our results show that the aligned PCL nanofibers are suitable physical properties as polymeric artificial scaffold in cardiovascular tissue engineering application.