The interaction of
neural progenitor cells (NPCs) with the extracellular
matrix (ECM) plays an important role in neural tissue regeneration.
Understanding which motifs of the ECM proteins are crucial for normal
NPC adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation is important in order
to create more adequate tissue engineered models of neural tissue
and to efficiently study the central nervous system regeneration mechanisms.
We have shown earlier that anisotropic matrices prepared from a mixture
of recombinant dragline silk proteins, such as spidroin 1 and spidroin
2, by electrospinning are biocompatible with NPCs and provide good
proliferation and oriented growth of neurites. This study objective
was to find the effects of spidroin-based electrospun materials, modified
with peptide motifs of the extracellular matrix proteins (RGD, IKVAV,
and VAEIDGIEL) on adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of
directly reprogrammed neural precursor cells (drNPCs). The structural
and biomechanical studies have shown that spidroin-based electrospun
mats (SBEM), modified with ECM peptides, are characterized by a uniaxial
orientation and elastic moduli in the swollen state, comparable to
those of the dura mater. It has been found for the first time that
drNPCs on SBEM mostly preserve their stemness in the growth medium
and even in the differentiation medium with brain-derived neurotrophic
factor and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor, while addition
of the mentioned ECM-peptide motifs may shift the balance toward neuroglial
differentiation. We have demonstrated that the RGD motif promotes
formation of a lower number of neurons with longer neurites, while
the IKVAV motif is characterized by formation of a greater number
of NF200-positive neurons with shorter neurites. At the same time,
all the studied matrices preserve up to 30% of neuroglial progenitor
cells, phenotypically similar to radial glia derived from the subventricular
zone. We believe that, by using this approach and modifying spidroin
by various ECM-motifs or other substances, one may create an
in vitro
model for the neuroglial stem cell niche with the
potential control of their differentiation.