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Realisation and characterization of conductive hollow fibers for neuronal tissue engineering
Author(s) -
Gattazzo Francesca,
De Maria Carmelo,
Whulanza Yudan,
Taverni Gemma,
Ahluwalia Arti,
Vozzi Giovanni
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part b: applied biomaterials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1552-4981
pISSN - 1552-4973
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.b.33297
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , electrical conductor , composite number , fiber , tissue engineering , neurite , adhesion , spinning , modulus , biomedical engineering , in vitro , medicine , biochemistry , chemistry
In this article, conductive hollow fibers have been fabricated using melt spinning technique. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐2,5‐diyl) (P3HT) have been used to fabricate conductive poly‐caprolactone (PCL) composites. The hollow fibers have inner and outer diameter in the range of 300 µm and 500 µm, respectively. Critical parameters to tune the dimension of hollow fibers have been defined following two‐dimensions mathematical model. Evaluation of the mechanical properties showed that the incorporation of 1–3 wt % MWNTs and 5–8 wt % P3HT increased Young Modulus of 10% and 20% respectively, compared with pure PCL. The electrical property assessment demonstrated that a minimum incorporation of 3 wt % MWNT and 8 wt % P3HT in PCL matrix transformed composite materials into conductive materials. In addition, SH‐SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells were seeded on the fabricated samples an their adhesion, proliferation and neurite length growth were analysed. In particular we observed that these materials promoted cell activities and in particular on MWNT/PCL composites there was a significant increase of neurite growth. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 103B: 1107–1119, 2015.