earticle

영어

To accomplish the therapeutic purpose in neural regenerative medicine using stem cells, control of both efficient differentiation into a target tissue and the axon guidance to desired direction are important. Herein, we used multi-walled carbon nanotube (mwCNT) sheets with aligned orientation to differentiate human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) into neuronal cells. Human MSCs were attached to aligned CNT sheets with longitudinal stretch in parallel direction to the CNTs. Elongation magnitude of cells was two-folds of the control and most of the cells aligned in sheet-CNT were within 5° angle of the CNT direction. Moreover, a significant synergistic effect on neuronal differentiation and cell adhesion was observed in hMSCs cultured on the CNT sheets. Axon outgrowth was also guided by the CNT pattern. This CNT sheet provides a new biomimetic platform that can regulate morphogenesis and differentiation of stem cells, which would open up the opportunities for tissue repair and regeneration of stem cell therapy.