Fig. 3

The differentiation of NSCs with the SF-based hydrogels in vitro. A Immunofluorescent staining of NSCs showing β-tubulin III-positive cells (green) and GFAP-positive cells (red) in different groups on days 3 and 10. The control group cells were directly seeded onto the surface of the tissue culture plate. B Statistics of the average axon length and longest axon length of each group. C Statistics of axon density of each group. D Rose wind diagram of axon distribution for each group. Each sector represents the number of axons within the corresponding angular range, with a larger sector area indicating a higher number of axons distributed at that angle. E Gene levels of β-tubulin III and F GFAP of the NSCs differentiation with the prepared hydrogels on days 3 and 10. G Categorize the differentially expressed genes into biological process (BP), cellular component (CC), and molecular function (MF) groups according to the Gene Ontology (GO) classification. H Enriched KEGG pathway analysis according to differentially expressed genes between the SF/MXene + ES and SF groups. (± SD, n = 3; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001)