Enhancing neural differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells by conductive graphene/silk fibroin films

Nerve regeneration and function recovery remain challenges for tissue engineering. The application of suitable scaffold in tissue engineering has been demonstrated to be able to enhance nerve regeneration and differentiation. However, a desired scaffold must meet the requirements of good cytocompatibility and high electrical conductivity simultaneously. In this study, a conductive film composed of SF and graphene was successfully fabricated, which was applied to evaluate its effect on the neural differentiation of iPSCs. The conductive film was found to enhance the differentiation of iPSCs toward neurons. In addition, the differentiation was enhanced with graphene contents and highest value was obtained at graphene content of 4%. Thus, the results in this study suggested that 4% G/SF film might be a suitable biomaterial scaffold for application in neural regeneration. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 2973–2983, 2018.