Polyacrylonitrile Nerve Conduits With Inner Longitudinal Grooved Textures to Enhance Neuron Directional Outgrowth

Topographical guidance cues are considered effective factors for enhancing the efficiency of nerve conduits in repairing nerve injuries. However, very few investigations so far have been reported to design and optimize the topographical patterns. In this paper, polyacrylonitrile nerve conduits with aligned longitudinal grooves on the inner surface were manufactured by the dry-jet wet spinning methods, where the groove width was precisely tunable. PC12 cells (mouse neuroblastic and eosinophilic cells) were cultured in the nerve conduits, and the results demonstrated that our designed inner grooved pattern effectively improved neurite alignment even when the groove width is significantly larger than the neuron size. Furthermore, the results revealed that both the groove and ridge width played important roles in controlling the neurites growth: parallel growth to the longitudinal direction was more obvious in the nerve conduits within narrower grooves. Here, we showed a simple yet effective technique to implement never conduits with a functional grooved inner texture. Controllable guidance of neurite growth, as well as the in-conduit morphological heterogeneity, showed promise for nerve regeneration and stem cell therapy in the future.