Laminin-coated nerve guidance conduits based on poly(l-lactide-co-glycolide) fibers and yarns for promoting Schwann cells’ proliferation and migration

Abstract

To develop an effective nerve guidance conduit with cooperative effects of topological structure and biological cues for promoting Schwann cells’ (SCs) proliferation and migration, a laminin-coated and yarn-encapsulated poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) nerve guidance conduit (LC-YE-PLGA NGC) was fabricated in this study. The PLGA fiber yarns were fabricated through a double-nozzle electrospinning system and then the PLGA fibrous outer layer was collected using a general electrospinning method. Subsequently, laminin was coated on the yarn-encapsulated PLGA NGC through covalent binding. The results showed satisfactory tensile mechanical strength of the laminin-coated PLGA fibers/yarns and good compressive mechanical support of the LC-YE-PLGA NGC. SCs proliferation was significantly superior (p < 0.05) on the PLGA and laminin-coated PLGA yarns than the PLGA fibers. Furthermore, the LC-YE-PLGA NGC performed much better in SCs migration compared with the NGCs without yarn-encapsulation or laminin-coating, indicating the synergistic effect of the three-dimensional yarn structure (topological structure) and the laminin-coating (biological cues) for SCs proliferation and migration. Therefore, the LC-YE-PLGA NGC demonstrated promising potential in promoting SCs proliferation and inducing SCs migration in nerve tissue engineering.