Improved Survival and Hematopoietic Differentiation of Murine Embryonic Stem Cells on Electrospun Polycaprolactone Nanofiber

Three-dimensional (3D) biomimetic nanofiber scaffolds have widespread applications in biomedical tissue engineering. They provide a suitable environment for cellular adhesion, survival, proliferation and differentiation, guide new tissue formation and development, and are one of the outstanding goals of tissue engineering. Electrospinning has recently emerged as a leading technique for producing biomimetic scaffolds with micro to nanoscale topography and a high porosity similar to the natural extracellular matrix (ECM). These scaffolds are comprised of synthetic and natural polymers for tissue engineering applications. Several kinds of cells such as human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and mouse ESCs (mESCs) have been cultured and differentiated on nanofiber scaffolds. mESCs can be induced to differentiate into a particular cell lineage when cultured as embryoid bodies (EBs) on nano-sized scaffolds. We cultured mESCs (2500 cells/100 μl) in 96-well plates with knockout Dulbecco’s modified eagle medium (DMEM-KO) and Roswell Park Memorial Institute-1640 (RPMI-1640), both supplemented with 20% ESC grade fetal bovine serum (FBS) and essential factors in the presence of leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF). mESCs were seeded at a density of 2500 cells/100 μl onto electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofibers in 96-well plates. The control group comprised mESCs grown on tissue culture plates (TCP) at a density of 2500 cells/100 μl. Differentiation of mESCs into mouse hematopoietic stem cells (mHSCs) was performed by stem cell factor (SCF), interleukin-3 (IL-3), IL-6 and Fms-related tyrosine kinase ligand (Flt3-L) cytokines for both the PCL and TCP groups. We performed an experimental study of mESCs differentiation. PCL was compared to conventional TCP for survival and differentiation of mESCs to mHSCs. There were significantly more mESCs in the PCL group. Flowcytometric analysis revealed differences in hematopoietic differentiation between the PCL and TCP culture systems. There were more CD34+ (Sca1+) and CD133+ cells subpopulations in the PCL group compared to the conventional TCP culture system. The nanofiber scaffold, as an effective surface, improves survival and differentiation of mESCs into mHSCs compared to gelatin coated TCP. More studies are necessary to understand how the topographical features of electrospun fibers affect cell growth and behavior. This can be achieved by designing biomimetic scaffolds for tissue engineering.