REVIEW ARTICLE Interactions between neural stem cells and biomaterials combined with biomolecules Ying WANG 1 , Hua DENG 1,2 , Zhao-Hui ZU 3 , Xing-Can SHEN 2 , Hong LIANG 2 , Fu-Zhai CUI (✉) 1 , Qun-Yuan XU 4 , In-Seop LEE 5 1 Institute of Regenerative Medical and Biomimetic Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China 2 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China 3 Department of Neurosurgery, FuXing Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China 4 Beijing Institute of Neuroscience, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069, China 5 Institute of Physics and Applied Physics, Yonsei University, Seoul 120749, Korea © Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 Abstract Neural repair and regeneration have been a tough problem in clinical studies. Tissue engineering using biomaterials along with neural stem cells (NSCs) have shown great potential for treatment, especially along with the biomolecules to regulate the NSCs can get more promising results. The biomolecules in the materials have a favorable impact on cell adhes ion, expansion, and differentiation. Thus, the interactions between biomaterials loading biomolecules and NSCs also receive particular attention. In this review, recent progresses of modified biomaterials by such biomolecules for neural injury and their impact on NSCs behavior will be discussed. Keywords biomaterial, neural stem cell (NSC), tissue engineering, biomolecule 1 Introduction Neurological disorders, such as stroke, trauma, and neurodegeneration seriously affect the quality of the patient's life. Whereas the nervous systems have limited ability to self renew or regenerate, this makes therapy so difficult. Tissue engineering strategies used for neural repair and regeneration gradually come out to be the most potential method for treatment, especially by the applica- tion of neural stem cells (NSCs) and biomaterials combined with specific factors or biomolecules [1]. Achieving good outcomes with biomaterials depends upon achieving optimal function, both mechanical and biological, which in turn depends upon integrating advances realized in biological science and material science. The engineered neural tissues rely on scaffolds with modified function to a great extent, for example, materials containing growth factors that facilitate cell attachment, proliferation, and differentiation is far better than nonmodified polymers. The biomaterials combined with bioactivity factors can not only sustain the cells and manipulate the host healing response at the site of injury to facilitate the tissue repair but also induce both the transplanted and endogenous NSCs to proliferate and differentiate to particular down-stream neural cells; hence, it can greatly improve the tissue regrowth [1]. Therefore, the success of neural tissue engineering is mainly based on the regulation of cell behavior and tissue progression through the development of a bioactive scaffold, as it can provides an ideal environment for topographical, electrical, and chemical cues to the adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of neural cells. The purpose of this review is to make clear the interactions between bioactive materials and NSCs and how the bioactive material works. It is important for neural tissue engineering, this promising therapeutic approach, to select and design scaffold to achieve better repair. The regulation of biomaterials to NSCs is mainly determined by properties of the material itself and influenced greatly by the biomolecules or biofactors combined with it. The applications of these molecules assign materials more biological functions, which improve biomaterials and tissue or cell reactions remarkable and induce NSCs to adhesion, proliferation, or differentiation. Lots of works have also been done to investigate Received October 11, 2010; accepted October 30, 2010 E-mail: cuifz@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn Front. Mater. Sci. China 2010, 4(4): 325–331 DOI 10.1007/s11706-010-0113-1