Elaheh Esmaeili - School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Masoud Soleimani - School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Simzar Hosseinzadeh - Department of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Background and Aim: Advanced polymers have versatile applicationsin diversified fields, such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, energyharvesting, sensors, and actuators. One of the most interesting polymersis polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) with a broad application in tissueengineering due to its biocompatibility, flexibility, and facile processingtechniques The magnetoelectric (ME) effect is the interrelation betweenmagnetic and electric properties of a material and is defined as thevariation of the electric polarization in response to a magnetic field (ΔH).In addition, it is a variant of the magnetization under an applied electricalfield.Methods: Given the fact that PVDF shows one of the most piezoelectricproperties among polymers, it was selected as the piezoelectric materialin this research. Moreover, CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were used as themagnetostrictive phase due to their large magnetostrictive coefficientsand high Curie temperatures. We electrospun the piezoelectric PVDFpolymer containing the magnetic nanoparticles to form magnetoelectricnanofibers. In the case of ME composites, a motion, which is induced bythe magnetic field in the magnetostrictive component, is transferred tothe piezoelectric component that converts the mechanical movement topolarization changes. The piezoelectric and magnetoelectric propertiesof the composite are becoming of interest for neural cell differentiation.Results: While the differentiation factors have been widely used todifferentiate mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into various cell types, theycan cause harm at the same time. Therefore, it is beneficial to proposemethods to differentiate MSCs without factors. Herein, magnetoelectricnanofibers were synthesized as the scaffold for the growth of MSCs and their differentiation into neural cells without factors. According tothe results of the current research, MTT and H&E assays confirmed thebiocompatibility of the composite nanofiber. In addition, RT-PCR and ICCassays confirmed that the good potential of the obtained magnetoelectricnanofiber for neural differentiation.Conclusion: Our findings can be applied to fabricate high-performancemagnetoelectric scaffolds to be used for neural cell differentiation withno need for chemical differentiation media, which leads to avoiding theirunwanted effects. The achievements of this study can provide a new wayto fabricate magnetoelectric scaffolds of high performance to be usedfor neural cell differentiation with no need for chemical differentiationmedia and consequently avoiding their unwanted effects.

Scaffold; Magnetoelectric; Electrospinning; Mesenchymal stem cells; Neural differentiation