Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov 4;7(4):196.
doi: 10.3390/gels7040196.

Electrospun Fibers Derived from Peptide Coupled Amphiphilic Copolymers for Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) Outgrowth

Na Qiang  1 , Wensheng Lin  2 , Xingwu Zhou  3 , Zhu Liu  1 , Ming Lu  1 , Si Qiu  1 , Shuo Tang  4 , Jixiang Zhu  2   5
Affiliations

Electrospun Fibers Derived from Peptide Coupled Amphiphilic Copolymers for Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) Outgrowth

Na Qiang et al. Gels. .

Abstract

Developing scaffolds with appropriate mechanical/structural features as well as tunable bioactivities are indispensable in the field of tissue engineering. This study focused on one such attempt to electrospin the copolymer of L-lactic acid (L-LA) and functional monomer (3(S)- [(benzyloxycarbony)methyl]-1,4-dioxane-2,5-dione, BMD) with small peptide modifications for the purpose of neural tissue engineering. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) micrographs showed fabricated electrospun copolymer as porous and uniform nanofibrous materials with diameter in the range of 800-1000 nm. In addition, the modified scaffolds displayed a lower contact angle than poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) indicating higher hydrophilicity. To further incorporate the bioactive functions, the nanofibers were chemically coupled with small peptide (isoleucine-lysine-valine-alanine-valine, IKVAV). The incorporation of IKVAV onto the electrospun fiber was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and such incorporation did not affect the surface morphology or fiber diameters. To demonstrate the potential of applying the designed scaffolds for nerve regeneration, dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons were cultured on the nanofibers to examine the impact on neurite outgrowth of DRGs. The results indicated that the fabricated nanofibrous matrix with small peptide might be a potential candidate for neural tissue engineering.

Keywords: dorsal root ganglion; electrospun; functional monomer; isoleucine-lysine-valine-alanine-valine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The SEM morphology of electrospun PLLA (A,B) and PLB-g-IKVAV (C,D) from total 15% solution. Magnifications of PLLA (A,B) and PLB-g-IKVAV (C,D) were displayed. Uniform polymeric fibers with and without peptide modification were gained at nanoscale from electrospinning.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean diameter (±SD) variations of electrospun PLLA and PLB-g-IKVAV fibers were interpretated from randomly selected 20 nanofibers in the SEM images. Nanofibers with and without peptide modifications displayed no significant changes in size.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Contact angle of PLLA and PLB-g-IKVAV fibers (n = 4) were measured. Nanofibers with peptide modification had a smaller contact angle indicating higher hydrophilicity.
Figure 4
Figure 4
XPS signals of PLLA (A) and after coupling with IKVAV (B). The nitrogen signal come from the peptide modification indicating successful chemical conjugation.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Fluorescence images of DRGs seeding on electrospun PLLA films (A) and PLB-g-IKVAV films (B) for 7d. Scale bar = 200 μm.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Quantification of the neurite length of DRGs seeded on different films for 7d interpretated from the fluorescence images (* p < 0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ji X., Li R., Jia W., Liu G., Luo Y., Cheng Z. Co-Axial Fibers with Janus-Structured Sheaths by Electrospinning Release Corn Peptides for Wound Healing. ACS. Appl. Bio. Mater. 2020;3:6430–6438. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.0c00860. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Behtaj S., Karamali F., Masaeli E., Anissimov Y.G., Rybachuk M. Electrospun PGS/PCL, PLLA/PCL, PLGA/PCL and pure PCL scaffolds for retinal progenitor cell cultivation. Biochem. Eng. J. 2021;166:107846. doi: 10.1016/j.bej.2020.107846. - DOI
    1. Barrientos I.J.H., Paladino E., Szabó P., Brozio S., Hall P.J., Oseghale C.I., Passarelli M.K., Moug S.J., Black R.A., Wilson C.G., et al. Electrospun collagen-based nanofibres: A sustainable material for improved antibiotic utilisation in tissue engineering applications. Int. J. Pharm. 2017;531:67–79. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2017.08.071. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kang Y.M., Lee S.H., Lee J.Y., Son J.S., Kim B.S., Lee B., Chun H.J., Min B.H., Kim J.H., Kim M.S. A biodegradable, injectable, gel system based on MPEG-b-(PCL-ran-PLLA) diblock copolymers with an adjustable therapeutic window. Biomaterials. 2010;31:2453–2460. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2009.11.115. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dorati R., Conti B., Colzani B., Dondi D., Lazzaroni S., Modena T., Genta I. Ivermectin controlled release implants based on poly-D,L-lactide and poly-ε-caprolactone. J. Drug Deliv. Sci. Tec. 2018;46:101–110. doi: 10.1016/j.jddst.2018.04.014. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources