Conductive PS inverse opals for regulating proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells

The development of neural tissue engineering has brought new hope to the treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI). Up to date, various scaffolds have been developed to induce the oriented growth and arrangement of nerves to facilitate the repair after injury. In this work, a conductive and anisotropic inverse opal substrate was presented by modifying polystyrene (PS) inverse opal films with carbon nanotubes and then stretching them to varying degrees. The film had good biocompatibility, and neural stem cells (NSCs) grown on the film displayed good orientation along the stretching direction. In addition, benefiting from the conductivity and anisotropy of the film, NSCs differentiated into neurons significantly. These results suggest that the conductive and anisotropic PS inverse opal substrates possess value in nerve tissue engineering regeneration.