Aligned nanofiber material supports cell growth and increases osteogenesis in canine adipose‐derived mesenchymal stem cells in vitro

Tissue engineering shows great promise for the treatment of degenerative diseases, including bone repair. Polymer nanofibers provide a three‐dimensional (3‐D) scaffold for attachment and growth of mesenchymal stem cells. Increasing evidence supports that fiber alignment on scaffolds plays a major role in the viability and differentiation of stem cells. We compared the cell viability of canine adipose tissue‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (cADMSCs) cultured in the aligned‐ (NanoAligned™) and random‐ (NanoECM™) oriented polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofiber‐coated plates to control polystyrene tissue culture plates using a proliferation assay. Ability of the plates to induce differentiation of cADMSCs into osteocytes, adipocytes, and neurons was evaluated based on expression of the osteocyte markers, COL1A1 and osterix ; adipocyte markers PPARγ2 and LPL ; and neuronal marker nestin using RT‐PCR. Proliferation results demonstrated that aligned‐oriented PCL nanofiber‐coated plates were more suitable substrate for cADMSCs after 7 days in culture compared to random‐oriented PCL nanofiber‐coated or control plates. Additionally, we demonstrated that both 3‐D PCL nanofiber‐coated plates were a better scaffold for cADMSCs differentiation into osteocytes compared to control plates. In conclusion, our results confirm that PCL nanofiber is a suitable tissue engineering material for use in regenerative medicine for canine patients in vivo . © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 1780–1788, 2018.