Abstract
The surface of aligned, electro spun poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) fibers was chemically modified to determine if surface chemistry and hydrophilicity could improve neurite extension from chick dorsal root ganglia. Specifically, diethylenetriamine (DTA, for amine functionalization), 2-(2-aminoethoxy) ethanol (AEO, for alcohol functionalization), or GRGDS (cell adhesion peptide) were covalently attached to the surface of electro spun fibers. Water contact angle measurements revealed that surface modification of electro spun fibers significantly improved fiber hydrophilicity compared to unmodified fibers (p < 0.05). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of fibers revealed that surface modification changed fiber topography modestly, with DTA modified fibers displaying the roughest surface structure. Degradation of chemically modified fibers revealed no change in fiber diameter in any group over a period of seven days. Unexpectedly, neurites from chick DRG were longest on fibers without surface modification (1651 ± 488 μm) and fibers containing GRGDS (1560 ± 107 μm). Fibers modified with oxygen plasma (1240 ± 143 μm) or DTA (1118 ± 82 μm) produced shorter neurites than the GRGDS or unmodified fibers but were not statistically shorter than unmodified and GRGDS modified fibers. Fibers modified with AEO (844 ± 151 μm) were significantly shorter than unmodified and GRGDS modified fibers (p< 0.05). Based on these results, we conclude that fiber hydrophilic enhancement alone on electro spun PLLA fibers does not enhance neurite outgrowth. Further work must be conducted to better understand why neurite extension was not improved on more hydrophilic fibers, but the results presented here do not recommend hydrophilic surface modification for the purpose of improving neurite extension unless a bioactive ligand is used.
Recommended Citation
N. J. Schaub et al., "The Effect of Surface Modification of Aligned Poly-l-lactic Acid Electrospun Fibers on Fiber Degradation and Neurite Extension," Plos One, vol. 10, no. 9, article no. e0136780, Public Library of Science, Sep 2015.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136780
Department(s)
Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Publication Status
Open Access
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
1932-6203
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2025 The Authors, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Publication Date
04 Sep 2015
PubMed ID
26340351
