Ductile electroactive biodegradable hyperbranched polylactide copolymers enhancing myoblast differentiation

Abstract

Myotube formation is crucial to restoring muscular functions, and biomaterials that enhance the myoblast differentiation into myotubes are highly desirable for muscular repair. Here, we report the synthesis of electroactive, ductile, and degradable copolymers and their application in enhancing the differentiation of myoblasts to myotubes. A hyperbranched ductile polylactide (HPLA) was synthesized and then copolymerized with aniline tetramer (AT) to produce a series of electroactive, ductile and degradable copolymers (HPLAAT). The HPLA and HPLAAT showed excellent ductility with strain to failure from 158.9% to 42.7% and modulus from 265.2 to 758.2 MPa. The high electroactivity of the HPLAAT was confirmed by UV spectrometer and cyclic voltammogram measurements. These HPLAAT polymers also showed improved thermal stability and controlled biodegradation rate compared to HPLA. Importantly, when applying these polymers for myotube formation, the HPLAAT significantly improved the proliferation of C2C12 myoblasts in vitro compared to HPLA. Furthermore, these polymers greatly promoted myogenic differentiation of C2C12 cells as measured by quantitative analysis of myotube number, length, diameter, maturation index, and gene expression of MyoD and TNNT. Together, our study shows that these electroactive, ductile and degradable HPLAAT copolymers represent significantly improved biomaterials for muscle tissue engineering compared to HPLA.

Self-Healing Conductive Injectable Hydrogels with Antibacterial Activity as Cell Delivery Carrier for Cardiac Cell Therapy

“…Meanwhile, heart as a vital organ has special electrophysiological behavior and the cardiac cells were in an electroactive condition. [17][18] It has been demonstrated that conductive polymers may promote the proliferation and differentiation of the electrical stimuli responsive cells, such as the stem cells, [19][20] myoblast cells, [21][22][23] nerve cells [24][25] and the cardiac cells. [26][27][28][29] Therefore, injectable hydrogels with conductivity as cardiac cell delivery vehicle are highly anticipated for cardiac repair.…”

Poly(vinyl alcohol)–Carbon Nanodots Fluorescent Hydrogel with Superior Mechanical Properties and Sensitive to Detection of Iron(III) Ions

“…Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) were gathered by samples mixed with potassium bromide (KBr) particles using a spectrometer (Nicolet 6700, Wisconsin, USA) at a resolution of 4 cm −1 and the scans of 128 in the region 4000–500 cm −1 …”

Hybrid polymer biomaterials for bone tissue regeneration

“…Recently, it was found that conductive polymers could tune the properties of cells in electrically sensitive tissues under electrical stimulation, including neural, muscle, cardiac, and bone [82–84]. Regenerative biomaterials for the treatment of bone diseases that need surgical intervention have attracted more attention, particularly with extended life expectancies.…”