Poly(lactic acid) composites based on graphene oxide particles with antibacterial behavior enhanced by electrical stimulus and biocompatibility

Abstract

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a biodegradable and biocompatible polyester widely used in biomedical applications. Unfortunately, this biomaterial suffers from some shortcomings related with the absence of both bioactivity and antibacterial capacity. In this work, composites of PLA with either graphene oxide (GO) or thermally reduced graphene oxide (TrGO) were prepared by melt mixing to overcome these limitations. PLA composites with both GO and TrGO inhibited the attachment and proliferation of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria depending on the kind and amount of filler. Noteworthy, it is shown that by applying an electrical stimulus to the percolated PLA/TrGO, the antibacterial behavior can be dramatically increased. MTT analysis showed that while all the PLA/GO composites were more cytocompatible to osteoblast-like cells (SaOS-2) than pure PLA, only low content of TrGO was able to increase this property. These tendencies were related with changes in the surface properties of the resulting polymer composites, such as polarity and roughness. In this way, the addition of GO and TrGO into a PLA matrix allows the development of multifunctional composites for potential applications in biomedicine. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 1051-1060, 2018.

Electroactive 3D Printed Scaffolds Based on Percolated Composites of Polycaprolactone with Thermally Reduced Graphene Oxide for Antibacterial and Tissue Engineering Applications

“…S. aureus can easily donate electrons to an external conductive surface producing electron transfer from the bacterial membrane under DC [28]. Therefore, the bacteria are pushed away from the biomaterial surface and detached by electrons transfer from the bacteria membrane [27,32], leading to membrane autolysis and cell disruption [21]. This bactericidal effect was confirmed by analyzing CFU bacteria from the bioreactor solution, as shown in Figure 7b.…”

“…As a result, the bacteria were pushed away from the electrically charged surface by electrophoretic effects and/or were released by electroosmotic flows which lead to the movement of the bacteria [26]. In addition, attached bacteria may be detached due to electron transfer between the bacterial membrane and the surface that allows the passage of current [32].…”

Graphene Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Biocompatibility, and Cytotoxicity

“…So, GO can be used to reinforce GO/PLA and GO/PCL nanocomposites with enhanced mechanical performance, thermal stability, and biocompatibility. These polymer biocomposites can be prepared by several routes, including solution mixing, melt mixing, and electrospinning [ 79 , 80 , 81 ].…”

“…Arriagada et al studied the effects of GO (0.5–5 wt.%) and TRG additions (1–10 wt.%) on the biocompatibility of melt-mixed GO/PLA and PLA/TRG nanocomposites [ 81 ]. The human osteosarcoma cell line (Saos-2) was cultured on these nanocomposites.…”

Enhanced Cell Proliferation and Osteogenesis Differentiation through a Combined Treatment of Poly-L-Lysine-Coated PLGA/Graphene Oxide Hybrid Fiber Matrices and Electrical Stimulation

“…Compare with graphene and rGO, GO has better dispersion within the polymer. Previous studies reported that the mechanical properties of polymer materials were improved by the addition of GO due to the interfacial interaction between the oxygen containing functional moieties of GO and the hydroxyl or amine groups of the polymer materials [5,15,34]. After PLL surface modification, it could be seen that there was no statistically significant difference in the tensile strengths of all hybrid fiber matrices before and after PLL surface modification, which indicated that the mechanical properties of hybrid fiber matrices appeared not to have been affected by the PLL surface modification.…”