A major impediment to tissue engineered repair of CNS damage is the glial scar that forms around implanted graft devices and creates an inhibitory environment for axon growth out of the repair site 1. The glial scar is composed of a 3-dimensional (3D) meshwork of astrocytes which become reactive in response to damage stimuli. Previous studies have shown that longitudinal alignment of astrocytes growing in monolayer is sufficient to direct and enhance the growth of neurites over their surface 2,3. The aim of this work therefore was to develop a 3D culture system in which the effect of astrocyte alignment on neurite growth could be modelled in a spatially relevant environment
