A promising therapy for retinal diseases is to employ biodegradable scaffolds to deliver retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) for repairing damaged or diseased retinal tissue. In the present study, cationic chitosan-graft-poly(ɛ-caprolactone)/polycaprolactone (CS-PCL/PCL) hybrid scaffolds were successfully prepared by electrospinning. Characterization of the obtained nanofibrous scaffolds indicated that zeta-potential, fiber diameter, and the content of amino groups on their surface were closely correlated with the amount of CS-PCL in CS-PCL/PCL scaffolds. To assess the cell-scaffold interaction, mice RPCs (mRPCs) were cultured on the electrospun scaffolds for 7 days. In-vitro proliferation assays revealed that mRPCs proliferated faster on the CS-PCL/PCL (20/80) scaffolds than the other electrospun scaffolds. Scanning electron microscopy and the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction results showed that mRPCs grown on CS-PCL/PCL (20/80) scaffolds were more likely to differentiate towards retinal neurons than those on PCL scaffolds. Taken together, these results suggest that CS-PCL/PCL(20/80) scaffolds have potential application in retinal tissue engineering.
Keywords: differentiation; electrospun; proliferation; retinal progenitor cells; tissue engineering.