Abstract: Objective: To investigate the effects of polyactic-co-glycolic(PLGA) electrospinning membrane carrying paclitaxel-liposomes with different concentrations on the proliferation and differentiation of the neural stem cells (NSCs), and to evaluate the feasibility of PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying paclitaxel liposomes in the tissue engineering repair of spinal cord injury. Methods: The paclitaxel-liposomes and PLGA were mixed in different proportions and the electrospinning technique was used to construct 1, 5 and 10μg·L^-1electrospinning membrane carrying paclitaxel-liposomes. The NSCs were isolated and purified from the fetal rat brain tissue. The diameters of PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying paclitaxel-liposomes in various groups were detected by scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the isolated and purified NSCs were identified by immunofluorescence staining. The NSCs were cultured in PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying paclitaxel-liposomes with different concentrations (0,1,5 and 10μ g·L^-1)as PLGA electrospinning membrane group and PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying 1,5 and 10μ g·L^-1paclitaxel-liposomes groups. The proliferation levels of the NSCs in various groups was detected by MTT method, and the expression levels of Tuj-1 and GFAP mRNA in the NSCs in various groups were detected by RT-PCR method. Results: The PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying paclitaxel-liposomes were white thin films. The SEM results showed that there was no statistical differences in the fiber diameters of PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying paclitaxel-liposomes between various groups (P>0.05).The immunofluorescence staining results showed that the cells isolated from fetal rat brain tissue were spherical and positive expression of Nestin protein. The MTT assay results showed that the proliferation level of NSCs in PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying 5μg·L^-1paclitaxel-liposomes group was higher than those in the other three groups(P<0.05).The RT-PCR results showed that compared with PLGA electrospinning membrane group, the expression level of Tuj-1 mRNA in the NSCs in PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying 5μg·L^-1 paclitaxel-liposomes group was increased(P<0.05) and the expression level of GFAP mRNA in the NSCs in PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying 5μg·L^-1 paclitaxel-liposomes group was decreased(P<0.05). Conclusion: Medium concentration of paclitaxel can promote the proliferation of NSCs and induce the differentiation of NSCs into the neurons. PLGA electrospinning membrane carrying medium concentration of paclitaxel-liposomes has certain application value in the repair of spinal cord injury.

Key words: paclitaxel-liposomes, electrospinning membrane, biomaterials, neural stem cells, spinal cord injury