Ex-vivo culture of neural stem cells in nanofiber scaffolds: cellular organization and dynamic systems

19/10/2018

Stem cells (SCs) hold the potential to be applied into several regenerative therapies. The majority of SCs are anchorage dependent, requiring surface areas with appropriate topology for cultivation in clinically relevant numbers. A strategy for mimicking the natural SCs niche is the use of electrospun fibers, with dimensions (200-500nm in diameter) at the scale of the fibrous proteins present in the niche, providing high contact areas required for cellular adhesion. The use of scaffolds of aligned nanofibers is particularly interesting envisaging the regeneration of neural tissue, applied to neural stem cells (NSC), providing anisotropy to stem cell organization. Nanofibers of poly-ε-caprolactone (PCL) were produced by electrospinning, subjected to aminolysis to introduce amine groups for chemical anchorage and functionalized with extracellular matrix (ECM) protein motifs: laminin (PCLLN) and RGD sequences (PCL-RGD).

Autores da comunidade :

• 

  M

  Miriam Calado Amores de Sousa

  ist33225

Orientadores desta instituição:

• 

  F

  Frederico Castelo Alves Ferreira

  ist24812

101353952

Doutoramento em Biotecnologia e Biociências

biological-sciences - Ciências Biológicas

eng - Inglês

Instituto Superior Técnico

Entidade financiadora da bolsa/projeto

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia