Cell adhesion-mediated piezoelectric
stimulation provides a noninvasive
method for in situ electrical
regulation of cell behavior, offering new opportunities for the design
of smart materials for tissue engineering and bioelectronic medicines.
In particular, the surface potential is mainly dominated by the inherent
piezoelectricity of the biomaterial and the dynamic adhesion state
of cells. The development of an efficient and optimized material interface
would have important implications in cell regulation. Herein, we modified
the surface of poled poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membranes through
polymerization of dopamine and investigated their influence on cell
adhesion and electromechanical self-stimulation. Our results demonstrated
that mesenchymal stem cells seeded on the poled PVDF membrane exhibited
stronger cell spreading and adhesion. Meanwhile, the surface modification
through polydopamine significantly improved the hydrophilicity of
the samples and contributed to the formation of cell actin bundles
and maturation of focal adhesions, which further positively modulated
cell piezoelectric self-stimulation and induced intracellular calcium
transients. Combining with theoretical simulations, we found that
the self-stimulation was enhanced mainly due to the increase of the
adhesion site and adhesion force magnitude. These findings provide
new insights for probing the cell regulation mechanism on piezoelectric
substrates, offering more opportunities for the rational design of
piezoelectric biomaterial interfaces for biomedical engineering.
Cancer chemotherapy remains challenging to pass through various biological and pathological barriers from blood circulation, tumor infiltration and cellular uptake before intracellular release of antineoplastic agents. Herein, icebreaker-inspired Janus nanomotors...
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