Blood-compatible Polyaniline Coated Electrospun Polyurethane Fiber Scaffolds for Enhanced Adhesion and Proliferation of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

Abstract

The endothelialization and anti-thrombotic abilities of tissue engineered vascular scaffolds are considered to be effective properties for improving the performance small-caliber vascular scaffolds. For this purpose, we designed and developed electrically conductive fibrous scaffolds based on polyaniline coated polyurethane (PANI-PU) electrospun fibers for vascular tissue engineering applications. The porosity of PANI-PU fibers was 75.27±2.04 %. The obtained PANI-PU fibers were characterized by SEM observations, XPS analysis, water contact angle (WCA) measurement and mechanical property. The PANI functionalization aimed to improve the performance of anticoagulation and endothelialization. The WCA of PAIN-PU decreased to 35 o from 135 o of PU fibers. Blood compatibility and cytocompatibility were compared before and after PANI coating. The adhered platelet cells on PANI-PU was 6.87×10 5 /cm 2 and plasma recalcification time was 123 s. Platelet adhesion and plasma recalcification time test showed that the PANI-PU scaffolds had a certain anticoagulant effect.The hemolysis rate of PANI-PU fibers was 0.14 %, which showed that the PANI-PU scaffolds could be used as blood contact materials. The observation of endothelial cell proliferation and morphology in human umbilical vein endothelial cells showed that PANI-PU fibers were more beneficial to cell adhesion, proliferation and extension than that of PU fibers. The results demonstrates the PANI coated electrospun PU fibers have great potential in application as small-diameter vascular grafts and this work shows new insights into conductive scaffolds for vascular tissue engineering.

Electrospun polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nanofibrous conduit for biomedical application

“…As shown in SEM images (Figure ), NO nanoparticles deposited more easily on the surface of eNO‐HS rather than eNO‐LS, which means more reduction in water contact angle of HS one in the result of more PVP on the surface. Hydrophilicity is important for tissue engineering scaffolds because proper hydrophilicity has a crucial effect on cell adhesion and spreading . Meanwhile, as it is known, increasing surface hydrophilicity lead to the formation of less interaction between the surface and components of blood, which has this potency to increase blood compatibility .…”

“…To address these challenges, finding alternatives to autologous vessels have attracted so much attention and the efforts have focused on developing vascular substitutes . Synthetic polymers such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyurethane (PU), poly( l ‐lactic acid) (PLLA), poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA), and polycaprolactone (PCL) have been utilized to introduce cardiovascular devices such as vascular graft, artificial heart, and heart valves for the matter of their biocompatibility and controlled mechanical properties.…”

In-Vitro Hemocompatibility of Polyaniline Functionalized by Bioactive Molecules

“…Although the biological properties of PANI in its native or modified form have already been studied, and cytotoxicity [5], interaction with stem cells [17], or interaction with tissues have already been reported, another important parameter of biocompatibility, namely interaction with blood has only been the subject of a few studies. The effect of PANI itself on platelet adhesion, hemolysis and plasma recalcification time has been studied by Li et al [18]. Here, PANI-coated polyurethane (PU) fibers were tested.…”

Fabrication of a self-assembled honeycomb nanofibrous scaffold to guide endothelial morphogenesis

“…Many researchers have reported that HUVECs grown on random electrospun fibers display a wellspread polygonal morphology and irregular distribution, which should be guided by the densely packed and randomly oriented nanofibers [61][62][63]. Sun et al reported that HUVECs on electrospun cross-linked gelatin membranes formed spherical or spindle morphology with plenty of pseudopodia attached to the fibers [62].…”