The actin microfilament cytoskeleton is involved in cellular processes, determining cell shape, and cell attachment. As the cell adheres to a substrate material, filopodia are formed. They are moved into place by actin acting upon the plasma membrane. Our results showed that the degree of cytoskeletal organization strongly increased on PLGA/nHA-I nanofiber scaffolds (Figure 9c) contrary to the PLGA/nHA composite (Figure 9b) and pristine PLGA nanofiber scaffolds (Figure 9a). The organized cytoskeleton can exert forces onto the substratum, thus orientating the matrix. This ordered extracellular matrix can in turn orientate

with the cytoskeleton of other cells that come into contact with it, ultimately creating a large-scale organization. Figure 8 Proliferation of osteoblast cells cultured on the pristine PLGA, PLGA/nHA, and PLGA/nHA-I nanofiber scaffolds. For 2 days click here as determined by a Brdu assay. Figure 9 Confocal laser scanning selleck chemicals micrograph of osteoblasts. Actin (red). Nucleus (blue). (a) Pristine PLGA, (b) PLGA/nHA, and (c) PLGA/nHA-I after selleck inhibitor 3 days of incubation. Alizarin red staining Differentiation of osteoblastic cells is one of the most important parameters for confirming osteogenesis of osteoblastic cells cultured

on the scaffolds [37]. To confirm osteogenesis, alizarin red staining is considered as one of the marker specific for differentiation of osteoblastic cells [38]. Figure 10a,b,c shows that osteoblastic cells underwent osteogenesis process on all of the scaffolds. The osteogenesis process was determined from the appearance of the red color, which is an indicator of calcium production

by osteoblastic cells. More cells were differentiated on the PLGA/nHA-I composite nanofiber scaffold (Figure 10c, dark red color) compared to the PLGA/nHA composite (Figure 10b, light red color) and pristine PLGA (Figure 10a, grayish color) nanofiber scaffolds. These results suggest that grafting of insulin on the nHA surface accelerated the differentiation of osteoblastic cells [38]. Figure 10 Alizarin red staining of osteoblast cells cultured for 15 days. On (a) PLGA, (b) PLGA/nHA, and (c) PLGA/nHA-I nanofiber scaffolds. Von Kossa assay Figure 11 illustrates the results of the Von Kossa assay performed on the PLGA/nHA-I, PLGA/nHA composite, and Pregnenolone pristine PLGA nanofiber scaffolds. Bone nodules are considered to be one of the markers specific to osteoblastic cell differentiation. In the Von Kossa assay, the calcified area is stained as black spot. The results obtained from the Von Kossa assay suggest that more bone nodules were formed on the PLGA/nHA-I (Figure 11c) contrary to the PLGA/nHA (Figure 11b) composite and pristine PLGA (Figure 11a) nanofiber scaffolds [1]. The Von Kossa assay results clearly suggested that insulin triggered and accelerated osteoblastic cell differentiation (Figure 11c) [20].