Hydrogel/fiber conductive scaffold for bone tissue engineering

Abstract

Hydrogel/fiber composites have emerged as compelling scaffolds for regeneration purposes. Any biorelated modification or feature may endow more regenerative functionality to these composites. In the present study, a hydrogel/fiber scaffold possessing electrical conductivity in both phases, hydrogel and fiber, has been prepared and evaluated. Fiber component possessed electrical conductivity due to the presence of polyaniline (PANi) and hydrogel fraction thanks to the presence of graphene nanoparticles. PANi based fibers were processed through electrospinning and transformed into a three-dimensional structure through ultrasonication. The hydrogel precursor solution composed of oxidized polysaccharides, gelatin and graphene with predesigned ratio was added to fibers and left to gel. The results of assessments on pristine hydrogel and hydrogel/fiber denoted that inclusion of conducting fibers into hydrogel increased elastic modulus, roughness and electrical conductivity, whereas decreased hydrophilicity. Moreover, the results showed that hydrogel/fiber composite better supported human osteoblast-like cell adhesion, proliferation, and morphology comparing hydrogel alone. In a nutshell, the presence of gel/fiber architecture along with electrical conductivity may lead the scaffold to be very promising for bone regeneration. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 718-724, 2018.

Three‐dimensional electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

“…Subsequently, Jetze et al found that when integrated with oriented PCL 3D nanofibrous scaffold prepared by electrohydrodynamic printing, the gelatin hydrogel composite even increased to an impressive 54‐fold compared with hydrogel or scaffold alone (Visser et al, ). To better mimic the electrical prerequisites of natural bone, a nanofiber/hydrogel was developed with electrical conductive PCL/polyaniline fibers and polysaccharides/gelatin/graphene gels (Khorshidi & Karkhaneh, ). In vitro study showed that the nanofiber/hydrogel composite better supported the cellular response of seeded human osteoblast‐like cells (MG63) compared to hydrogel alone and are promising for bone tissue engineering.…”

Incorporation of Conductive Materials into Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications

“…Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) are known to be the most promising substances for bone tissue regeneration because they promote osteogenic differentiation of MSCs [175]. Heo et al synthesized biodegradable hydrogel using GNPs and regenerated bone tissues [176].…”

Roles of electrical stimulation in promoting osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs on conductive fibers

“…Some researches point out that the conductive substrates can mimic the cells’ niche in an appropriate manner and translate signals between cells through electricity . In order to supply a favor electric field for cells, conductive scaffolds emerge in various forms like three‐dimensional hydrogel, two‐dimensional fibers or sometimes particles …”

“…[16][17][18] In order to supply a favor electric field for cells, conductive scaffolds emerge in various forms like threedimensional hydrogel, two-dimensional fibers or sometimes particles. [19][20][21] The mechanism by which ES promotes cell activities has been widely studied. For bone regeneration, the enhanced osteogenic differentiation of multipotential mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) under ES draws concerns.…”