*Article* **Design and Fabrication of Nanofibrous Dura Mater with Antifibrosis and Neuroprotection Effects on SH-SY5Y Cells**

**Zhiyuan Zhao 1,2,3,†, Tong Wu 2,3,† , Yu Cui 2,3, Rui Zhao 1,2,3, Qi Wan 2,3,\* and Rui Xu 1,3,\***


† These authors contributed equally to this work.

**Abstract:** The development and treatment of some diseases, such as large-area cerebral infarction, cerebral hemorrhage, brain tumor, and craniocerebral trauma, which may involve the injury of the dura mater, elicit the need to repair this membrane by dural grafts. However, common dural grafts tend to result in dural adhesions and scar tissue and have no further neuroprotective effects. In order to reduce or avoid the complications of dural repair, we used PLGA, tetramethylpyrazine, and chitosan as raw materials to prepare a nanofibrous dura mater (NDM) with excellent biocompatibility and adequate mechanical characteristics, which can play a neuroprotective role and have an antifibrotic effect. We fabricated PLGA NDM by electrospinning, and then chitosan was grafted on the nanofibrous dura mater by the EDC-NHS cross-linking method to obtain PLGA/CS NDM. Then, we also prepared PLGA/TMP/CS NDM by coaxial electrospinning. Our study shows that the PLGA/TMP/CS NDM can inhibit the excessive proliferation of fibroblasts, as well as provide a sustained protective effect on the SH-SY5Y cells treated with oxygen–glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R). In conclusion, our study may provide a new alternative to dural grafts in undesirable cases of dural injuries.

**Keywords:** nanofibrous dura mater; antifibrosis; neuroprotection; PLGA; tetramethylpyrazine
