Novel Electroactive Mineralized Polyacrylonitrile/PEDOT:PSS Electrospun Nanofibers for Bone Repair Applications

Abstract

Bone defect repair remains a critical challenge in current orthopedic clinical practice, as the available therapeutic strategies only offer suboptimal outcomes. Therefore, bone tissue engineering (BTE) approaches, involving the development of biomimetic implantable scaffolds combined with osteoprogenitor cells and native-like physical stimuli, are gaining widespread interest. Electrical stimulation (ES)-based therapies have been found to actively promote bone growth and osteogenesis in both in vivo and in vitro settings. Thus, the combination of electroactive scaffolds comprising conductive biomaterials and ES holds significant promise in improving the effectiveness of BTE for clinical applications. The aim of this study was to develop electroconductive polyacrylonitrile/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PAN/PEDOT:PSS) nanofibers via electrospinning, which are capable of emulating the native tissue’s fibrous extracellular matrix (ECM) and providing a platform for the delivery of exogenous ES. The resulting nanofibers were successfully functionalized with apatite-like structures to mimic the inorganic phase of the bone ECM. The conductive electrospun scaffolds presented nanoscale fiber diameters akin to those of collagen fibrils and displayed bone-like conductivity. PEDOT:PSS incorporation was shown to significantly promote scaffold mineralization in vitro. The mineralized electroconductive nanofibers demonstrated improved biological performance as observed by the significantly enhanced proliferation of both human osteoblast-like MG-63 cells and human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (hBM-MSCs). Moreover, mineralized PAN/PEDOT:PSS nanofibers up-regulated bone marker genes expression levels of hBM-MSCs undergoing osteogenic differentiation, highlighting their potential as electroactive biomimetic BTE scaffolds for innovative bone defect repair strategies.

Advances in the Application of Black Phosphorus-Based Composite Biomedical Materials in the Field of Tissue Engineering

“…The high conductivity of PEDOT:PSS, combined with its enhanced electrochemical stability, high biocompatibility, and easiness of processing when compared with other conductive polymers, has motivated its increasing use in several tissue engineering strategies. The polyacrylonitrile (PAN/PEDOT:PSS) nanofibers that were functionalized with apatite-like structure can simulate bone cell microenvironment and provide electrical stimulation, significantly promoting the proliferation of human bone oogenesis MG-63 cells and human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells/stromal cells (hBM-MSCs), upregulating the expression level of bone marker genes during osteogenic differentiation of hBM-MSCs, highlighting its potential as an electroactive biomimetic BTE scaffold for innovative bone defect repair strategy [ 99 ]. The hBM-MSCs cultured on the PEDOT:PSS-coated polybenzimidazole (PBI) electrospinning scaffold for 1 week showed high viability, typical morphology, and proliferation ability [ 100 ].…”

Synergy between 3D-extruded electroconductive scaffolds and electrical stimulation to improve bone tissue engineering strategies

“…31–33 Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) is an ECP, suitable for the design of TE scaffolds due to its high stability and biocompatibility. 34–36 For example, Guex and colleagues 37 reported the development of an electroconductive (6.1 × 10 −6 S cm −1 ) ice-templated PEDOT:PSS scaffold capable of supporting MC3T3-E1 cells' osteogenic differentiation and the deposition of the mineralized extracellular matrix (ECM). PEDOT:PSS can also be processed into versatile electroconductive composites with collagen 38 and nanohydroxyapatite/chitosan 39 for bone TE applications.…”