Substantial Differentiation of Human Neural Stem Cells Into Motor Neurons on a Biomimetic Polyurea

• Published in: Macromolecular bioscience 2015-09, Vol.15 (9), p.1206-1211
• Main Authors: Yun, Donghwa, Lee, Young M., Laughter, Melissa R., Freed, Curt R., Park, Daewon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: biomaterials; Biomimetic Materials; biomimetic polymer; Biomimetics; Differentiation; Human; Humans; motor neuron; Motor Neurons - cytology; Motors; neural stem cells; Neural Stem Cells - physiology; Neurogenesis; Neurons; Polymers; Scaffolds; Spinal cord; Spinal cord injuries; spinal cord injury; Stem Cell Transplantation; Stem cells; Tissue Scaffolds - chemistry
• ISSN: 1616-5187; 1616-5195
• DOI: 10.1002/mabi.201500066

To find the first restorative treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI), researchers have focused on stem cell therapies. However, one obstacle is the lack of an implantable cell scaffold that can support efficient motor neuron (MN) differentiation and proliferation. We aimed to overcome this through the use of an RGD functionalized novel biomimetic polyurea, optimized to encourage efficient differentiation of MNs. Images taken after 14‐days showed increased differentiation (∼40%) of hNSCs into MNs as well as increased cell count on the biomimetic polymer compared to PDL‐Laminin coating, indicating that the RGD‐polyurea provides a favorable microenvironment for hNSC survival, having promising implications for future SCI therapies. Human neural stem cells are successfully cultured and differentiated into motor neurons on a biomimetic polymer functionalized with RGD. Mature motor neurons are able to survive and proliferate efficiently on this synthetic coating demonstrating its potential to act as an implantable cell scaffold for spinal cord injury treatment.