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In this work, we examined the biocompatibility of electrospun chitosan microfibers as a scaffold. The chitosan microfibers showed a three-dimensional pore structure by SEM. The chitosan microfibers supported attachment and viability of rat muscle-derived stem cells (rMDSCs). Subcutaneous implantation of the chitosan microfibers demonstrated that implantation of rMDSCs containing chitosan microfibers induced lower host tissue responses with decreased macrophage accumulation than did the chitosan microfibers alone, probably due to the immunosuppression of the transplanted rMDSCs. Our results collectively show that chitosan microfibers could serve as a biocompatible in vivo scaffold for rMDSCs in rats.

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In this study, we chose valproic acid (VA) for inducing neural differentiation in rat muscle-derived stem cells (rMDSCs). After pre-induction with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and subsequent treatment with VA, VA-related cytotoxicity to rMDSCs was relatively low. In addition, VA-treated rMDSCs exhibited a neural-like morphology after 1, 4, and 7 days. The immunocytochemical results of VA-treated rMDSCs showed abundant cells stained positive for neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and neuron filament (NF) as neural markers, oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2 (Olig-2) as an oligodendrocyte marker, and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) as an astrocyte marker. Our results suggest that rMDSCs can be differentiated into a neural-like phenotype by using VA.