Polycaprolactone/nano-graphene composite scaffolds for neural differentiation of dental pulp stem cells

In this research, design and fabrication of graphene reinforced nano-composite scaffolds for neural induction in dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) has been considered. Polycaprolactone / nano-graphene composite scaffolds with 1%, 3% and 5% wt. graphene were firstly fabricated by the solvent casting method. Subsequently, hydrophilicity and electrical conductivity of the nano-composites were measured. According to the results of the mentioned physical experiments, the appropriate scaffold with the optimal ratio of nano-graphene was selected and cellular morphology, metabolic activity and neural differentiation potential of cultured DPSCs on it were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), MTS assay and Immunofluorescent staining, respectively. Conductivity results demonstrated that by adding graphene to pure polymer, the electrical conductivity of the composite considerably increased. The addition of 5% wt. nano-graphene to the polymer can also reduce contact angle amount from 99.89±2.86° to 64.03±3.36°. Finally, SEM and Immunofluorescence images with MAP2 marker illustrated that the cultured cells on the surface of optimum scaffold differentiated into neuron-like cells with neural morphology. The results of this study showed that conductive polycaprolactone containing 5% graphene nano-composite scaffolds have the appropriate potential for induction of neural differentiation and application in neural tissue engineering.