Bionic microenvironment-inspired synergistic effect of anisotropic micro-nanocomposite topology and biology cues on peripheral nerve regeneration

Guicai Li; Tiantian Zheng; Linliang Wu; Qi Han; Yifeng Lei; Longjian Xue; Luzhong Zhang; Xiaosong Gu; Yumin Yang

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abi5812

Bionic microenvironment-inspired synergistic effect of anisotropic micro-nanocomposite topology and biology cues on peripheral nerve regeneration

Sci Adv. 2021 Jul 7;7(28):eabi5812. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abi5812. Print 2021 Jul.

Authors

Guicai Li^{1

2

3

4}, Tiantian Zheng^{5

2

3}, Linliang Wu^{5

2

3}, Qi Han^{5

2

3}, Yifeng Lei⁶, Longjian Xue⁶, Luzhong Zhang^{5

2

3}, Xiaosong Gu^{1

2

3}, Yumin Yang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Key laboratory of Neuroregeneration of Jiangsu and Ministry of Education, Nantong University, 226001 Nantong, P.R. China. gcli1981@ntu.edu.cn nervegu@ntu.edu.cn yangym@ntu.edu.cn.
² Co-innovation Center of Neuroregeneration, Nantong University, 226001 Nantong, P.R. China.
³ NMPA Key Laboratory for Research and Evaluation of Tissue Engineering Technology Products, Nantong University, 226001 Nantong, P.R. China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Organ Regeneration and Transplantation of the Ministry of Education, Jilin University, 130061 Changchun, P.R. China.
⁵ Key laboratory of Neuroregeneration of Jiangsu and Ministry of Education, Nantong University, 226001 Nantong, P.R. China.
⁶ School of Power and Mechanical Engineering and The Institute of Technological Science, Wuhan University, 430072 Wuhan, P.R. China.

Abstract

Anisotropic topographies and biological cues can simulate the regenerative microenvironment of nerve from physical and biological aspects, which show promising application in nerve regeneration. However, their synergetic influence on injured peripheral nerve is rarely reported. In the present study, we constructed a bionic microenvironment-inspired scaffold integrated with both anisotropic micro-nanocomposite topographies and IKVAV peptide. The results showed that both the topographies and peptide displayed good stability. The scaffolds could effectively induce the orientation growth of Schwann cells and up-regulate the genes and proteins relevant to myelination. Last, three signal pathways including the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, the extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen-activated protein pathway, and the transforming growth factor-β pathway were put forward, revealing the main path of synergistic effects of anisotropic micro-nanocomposite topographies and biological cues on neuroregeneration. The present study may supply an important strategy for developing functional of artificial nerve implants.

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