Intrinsically Conductive Polymers for Striated Cardiac Muscle Repair

Abstract

One of the most important features of striated cardiac muscle is the excitability that turns on the excitation-contraction coupling cycle, resulting in the heart blood pumping function. The function of the heart pump may be impaired by events such as myocardial infarction, the consequence of coronary artery thrombosis due to blood clots or plaques. This results in the death of billions of cardiomyocytes, the formation of scar tissue, and consequently impaired contractility. A whole heart transplant remains the gold standard so far and the current pharmacological approaches tend to stop further myocardium deterioration, but this is not a long-term solution. Electrically conductive, scaffold-based cardiac tissue engineering provides a promising solution to repair the injured myocardium. The non-conductive component of the scaffold provides a biocompatible microenvironment to the cultured cells while the conductive component improves intercellular coupling as well as electrical signal propagation through the scar tissue when implanted at the infarcted site. The in vivo electrical coupling of the cells leads to a better regeneration of the infarcted myocardium, reducing arrhythmias, QRS/QT intervals, and scar size and promoting cardiac cell maturation. This review presents the emerging applications of intrinsically conductive polymers in cardiac tissue engineering to repair post-ischemic myocardial insult.

Current Applications of Polycaprolactone as a Scaffold Material for Heart Regeneration

“…Another conductive polymer, polyaniline (PANI), has been extensively studied and shown to enhance cardiomyocyte proliferation, , cell–cell signaling, and ECM development . A more extensive list of conductive polymer usage in cardiac muscle can be found in Haq et al From these results, the incorporation of conductive materials into PCL scaffolds appears to be a promising method for enhancing CM maturation and intercellular communication, in addition to possible enhancements of tissue-wide electrical propagation in vivo. Continued expansion of conductive polymers will enable greater tuning of the electrical properties and cellular response in blended PCL scaffolds.…”

Polycaprolactone–MXene Nanofibrous Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

“…These scaffolds might also provide targeted drug delivery and act as flexible electrodes. Conductive biomaterials with tailored mechanical, structural, and functional properties could be effective tools to promote the proliferation and differentiation behavior of electrical stimuli-responsive cells, such as neurons, bones, and muscle cells . Cardiac tissue and neural guide conduits are the most challenging materials which require conductive scaffolds with controlled electrical properties.…”

“…Conductive biomaterials with tailored mechanical, structural, and functional properties could be effective tools to promote the proliferation and differentiation behavior of electrical stimuli-responsive cells, such as neurons, 6 bones, 7 and muscle cells. 8 Cardiac tissue and neural guide conduits are the most challenging materials which require conductive scaffolds with controlled electrical properties. Despite numerous research efforts, 9−11 it is still a big challenge to provide a balance between biocompatibility and conductivity of scaffolds.…”

Thermal-Induced Percolation Phenomena and Elasticity of Highly Oriented Electrospun Conductive Nanofibrous Biocomposites for Tissue Engineering

“…Tissue engineering (TE) is an interdisciplinary field that combines stem cell biology, materials science, and engineering with the aim to generate constructs/scaffolds that resemble native human tissue. Modulation of scaffold’s properties such as; conductivity, elasticity, topography, geometry, and surface chemistry have a major impact on cell growth and adhesion/differentiation because cells receive different feedback from materials/scaffolds when they have the ability to dissipate the energy and reorganize their structures [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Tissues have complex structures, and, similar to engineering materials, their electrical, chemical, and mechanical properties are controlled by their microstructures [ 8 ].…”

“…Highly oriented electrospun conductive nanofibrous biocomposites (CNBs) of biopolymers blending with electroconductive materials are the most suitable scaffolds for TE applications due to high orientation, tuneable conductivity, tuneable mechanical strength, tuneable fiber diameter, and biocompatibility [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. The conductive components of CNB scaffolds develop intercellular signaling pathways between tissues and cultured cells, while non-conductive components provide a biocompatible environment to the cultured cells [ 1 , 6 ]. Electrospinning assists in the development of oriented CNBs with sufficient electrical, mechanical, and biological properties for effective tissue regeneration [ 16 , 17 ].…”