Peripheral nerve regeneration can be enhanced by the stimulation of formation of bands of Bungner prior to implantation. Aligned electrospun poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) fibers were fabricated to test their potential to provide contact guidance to human Schwann cells. After 7 days of culture, cell cytoskeleton. and nuclei were observed to align and elongate along the fiber axes, emulating the structure of bands of Bungner. Microarray analysis revealed a general down-regulation in expression of neurotrophin and neurotrophic receptors in aligned cells as compared to cells seeded on two-dimensional PCL film. Real-time-PCR analyses confirmed the up-regulation of early myelination marker, myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG), and the down-regulation of NCAM-1, a marker of immature Schwann cells. Similar gene expression changes were also observed on cells cultured on randomly oriented PCL electrospun fibers. However, upregulation of the myelin-specific gene, PO, was observed only on aligned electrospun fibers, suggesting the propensity of aligned fibers in promoting Schwann cell maturation. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.