Chitosan Micro-Grooved Membranes with Increased Asymmetry for the Improvement of the Schwann Cell Response in Nerve Regeneration

oleh: Luca Scaccini, Roberta Mezzena, Alessia De Masi, Mariacristina Gagliardi, Giovanna Gambarotta, Marco Cecchini, Ilaria Tonazzini

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2021-07-01

Deskripsi

Peripheral nerve injuries are a common condition in which a nerve is damaged, affecting more than one million people every year. There are still no efficient therapeutic treatments for these injuries. Artificial scaffolds can offer new opportunities for nerve regeneration applications; in this framework, chitosan is emerging as a promising biomaterial. Here, we set up a simple and effective method for the production of micro-structured chitosan films by solvent casting, with high fidelity in the micro-pattern reproducibility. Three types of chitosan directional micro-grooved patterns, presenting different levels of symmetricity, were developed for application in nerve regenerative medicine: gratings (GR), isosceles triangles (ISO) and scalene triangles (SCA). The directional patterns were tested with a Schwann cell line. The most asymmetric topography (SCA), although it polarized the cell shaping less efficiently, promoted higher cell proliferation and a faster cell migration, both individually and collectively, with a higher directional persistence of motion. Overall, the use of micro-structured asymmetrical directional topographies may be exploited to enhance the nerve regeneration process mediated by chitosan scaffolds.