Neural differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells on polycaprolactone/gelatin bi-electrospun nanofibers

In the present study, for the first time, polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin (GEL) were used for neural differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) in the form of bi-electrospun nanofibers. The electrospun fibers were evaluated by FTIR and tensile analysis. MTT assay was used to evaluate the toxicity on the scaffolds. The hiPSCs were seeded on the fibers and after 14 days in neural differentiation medium. To confirm the differentiation, real-time PCR and immunocytochemistry (ICC) analyses were performed. For morphological studies of fibers and cultured cells on them, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy (OM) were used. Our results indicated that hiPSCs had differentiated to neural cells completely after incubation time. Our study demonstrates that PCL/GEL bi-electrospun nanofibers not only have the capability to support hiPSCs differentiation to neural cells, but they also are able to enhance and improve such process. Overall, PCL/GEL scaffolds seem to be a feasible, reliable and easily accessed composite for further tissue engineering experiments. - Highlights: • Biocompatible bi-electrospun of polycaprolactone/gelatin (PCL/GEL) was prepared. • Hydrophilicity and cell viability of PCL scaffolds were improved by GEL nanofibers. • Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) differentiated to neural-like cells. • The electrospun PCL/GEL was introduced as a neural differentiation scaffold.