Open AccessConductive collagen/polypyrrole-b-polycaprolactone hydrogel for bioprinting of neural tissue constructs
Author(s) -
Sanjairaj Vijayavenkataraman,
Novelia Vialli,
Jerry Ying Hsi Fuh,
Wen Feng Lu
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
international journal of bioprinting
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 2424-7723
pISSN - 2424-8002
DOI - 10.18063/ijb.v5i2.1.229
Subject(s) - self healing hydrogels , materials science , polypyrrole , polycaprolactone , biocompatibility , tissue engineering , neural tissue engineering , nanotechnology , conductive polymer , regenerative medicine , biomedical engineering , 3d bioprinting , polymer , composite material , chemistry , polymer chemistry , polymerization , medicine , biochemistry , metallurgy , cell
Bioprinting is increasingly being used for fabrication of engineered tissues for regenerative medicine, drug testing and other biomedical applications. The success of this technology lies with development of suitable bioinks and hydrogels that are specific to the intended tissue application. For applications such as neural tissue engineering, conductivity plays an important role in determining the neural differentiation and neural tissue regeneration. Although several conductive hydrogels based on metal nanoparticles such as gold and silver, carbon-based materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and conducting polymers such as polypyrrole (PPy), and polyaniline (PANi) were used, they possess several disadvantages. The long-term cytotoxicity of metal nanoparticles and carbon-based materials restricts their use in regenerative medicine. The conductive polymers on the other hand are non-biodegradable and possess weak mechanical properties limiting their printability into 3D constructs. The aim of this study is to develop a biodegradable, conductive and printable hydrogel based on collagen and a block copolymer of PPy and Polycaprolactone (PCL) (PPy-b-PCL) for bioprinting of neural tissue constructs. The printability including the influence of the printing speed and material flowrate on the printed fiber width, rheological properties and cytotoxicity of these hydrogels were studied. The results prove that the collagen/PPy-b-PCL hydrogels possessed better printability and biocompatibility. Thus, the collagen/PPy-b-PCL hydrogels reported in this study has the potential to be used in the bioprinting of neural tissue constructs for repair of damaged neural tissues and for drug testing or precision medicine applications.