An Effective Cell Coculture Platform Based on the Electrospun Microtube Array Membrane for Nerve Regeneration

Abstract

Recently, a novel substrate known as an electrospun polylactic acid (PLLA) microtube array membrane (MTAM) was successfully developed as a cell coculture platform. Structurally, this substrate is made up of one-to-one connected, ultrathin, submicron scale fibers that are arranged in an arrayed formation. Its unique structure confers several key advantages which are beneficial in a cell coculture system. In this study, the interaction between rat fetal neural stem cells (NSC) and astrocytes was examined by comparing the outcome of a typical Transwell-based coculture system and that of an electrospun PLLA MTAM-based coculture system. Compared to tissue culture polystyrene (TCP) and Transwell coculture inserts, a superior cell viability of NSC was observed when cultured in lumens of electrospun PLLA MTAM (with supportive immunostaining images). Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction revealed a strong interaction between astrocytes and NSC through a higher expression of doublecortin and a lower expression of nestin. These data demonstrate that MTAM is clearly a better coculture platform than the traditional Transwell system.

Tissue-Engineered Vascular Graft with Co-Culture of Smooth Muscle Cells and Human Endothelial Vein Cells on an Electrospun Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) Microtube Array Membrane

“…PLGA MTAMs, which consisted of one-to-one connected individual ultra-thin fibers arranged in an arrayed formation, were successfully fabricated. Compared to the MTAMs of Polylactic Acid (PLLA) and Polysulfone (PSF) in our previous work, the fibers here appeared to be squared in shape, as opposed to those in our previous works [45][46][47]. The lumen walls of the PLGA MTAMs, which consisted of a homogenously porous pore with a narrow distribution of between 32-36 nm (Figure 2), suggested an excellent ability to precisely control the pore sizes through our internally developed porogen-surfactant ratio.…”

“…Such findings were confirmed in the data in Figure 6 where the SMCs registered no significant difference in viability when compared to the Transwell co-culture system, while a significantly higher viability was observed in the HUVECs cells. The findings of utilizing MTAMs as a co-culture system, which produced superior results when compared to conventional Transwell co-culture systems, were echoed in our previous work with neuron stem cells (NSCs) and astrocytes, which resulted in better viability and maturation of NSCs [47].…”

Electrospun Polylactic Acid (PLLA) Microtube Array Membrane (MTAM)—An Advanced Substrate for Anticancer Drug Screening

“…Recently, we developed a new class of hollow fibers known as the microtube array membrane (MTAM), which consisted of ultra-thin, homogenously porous, one-to-one connected individual fibers [20,21,22]. The unique microstructures conferred various benefits in various applications from ethanol fermentation, nerve regeneration and cancer studies [23,24,25,26,27,28]. By replacing the traditional hollow fibers used in the HFA process with our MTAMs, we aim to demonstrate the use of our MTAM-based HFA (MTAM/HFA) in personalized medicine.…”

Ultrahigh packing density next generation microtube array membrane: A novel solution for absorption‐based extracorporeal endotoxin removal device

“…Most interesting, the lumen walls of the PSF MTAMs were 25% thinner at 1.67 μm versus 2.26 μm (statically significant). While not useful in this study, the significantly thinner lumen wall thickness is an important characteristic which played a major role in a majority of other works ranging from tissue regeneration (Morelli et al, 2017; Morelli et al, 2019; Tseng et al, 2017), anticancer drug screening (Tseng et al, 2019), fermentation (Chen et al, 2015), microbial fuel cell (Chew et al, 2016), and nano/microseparation.…”

“…MTAMs consist of submicrometer scale, ultrathin, one‐to‐one connected, arrayed fibers, and homogenously porous; where the unique microstructures confer unprecedented value proposition in terms of superior diffusion, excellent biocompatibility, high packing density, directionally oriented which makes it suitable for tissue with directional growth such as nerves, smooth muscle cell and the ability to be manipulated on a macro scale while conferring the benefits of the micrometer scale (Chew, Wu, & Chen, 2016; Hung et al, 2015; Lin et al, 2014; Yang et al, 2012). Through the capitalization of these superior characteristic of the MTAMs, various MTAM based application have been demonstrated over the years; and they include tissue regeneration (Morelli et al, 2019; Tseng et al, 2017), fermentation (Chen et al, 2015; Yang et al, 2019), anticancer drug screening platform (Tseng et al, 2019), cancer studies (Yang et al, 2015), bioreactor (Morelli et al, 2017), microbial fuel cell (Chew et al, 2016), and many more.…”