Pyrrole Plasma Polymer-Coated Electrospun Scaffolds for Neural Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Promising strategies for neural tissue engineering are based on the use of three-dimensional substrates for cell anchorage and tissue development. In this work, fibrillar scaffolds composed of electrospun randomly- and aligned-oriented fibers coated with plasma synthesized pyrrole polymer, doped and undoped with iodine, were fabricated and characterized. Infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and X-ray diffraction analysis revealed the functional groups and molecular integration of each scaffold, as well as the effect of plasma polymer synthesis on crystallinity. Scanning microscopy imaging demonstrated the porous fibrillar micrometric structure of the scaffolds, which afforded adhesion, infiltration, and survival for the neural cells. Orientation analysis of electron microscope images confirmed the elongation of neurite-like cell structures elicited by undoped plasma pyrrole polymer-coated aligned scaffolds, without any biochemical stimuli. The MTT colorimetric assay validated the biocompatibility of the fabricated composite materials, and further evidenced plasma pyrrole polymer-coated aligned scaffolds as permissive substrates for the support of neural cells. These results suggest plasma synthesized pyrrole polymer-coated aligned scaffolds are promising materials for tissue engineering applications.

Plasma-Polymerised Antibacterial Coating of Ovine Tendon Collagen Type I (OTC) Crosslinked with Genipin (GNP) and Dehydrothermal-Crosslinked (DHT) as a Cutaneous Substitute for Wound Healing

“…PHD was also coated with polypyrrole (PPyl) via plasma polymerisation to improve the cell growth of pancreatic beta cells to prevent diabetic mellitus [ 48 ]. PPyl was also used for neural tissue engineering for cell anchorage and tissue development on an electrospun polylactic acid (PLA) based scaffold [ 49 ]. Griffin et al tested different modifications of chemical groups on the surface of a nanocomposite polymer through plasma polymerisation on the effect of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) for craniofacial repair and observed increased cell adhesion (COOH modification) and drive selection on osteogenic (NH 2 group) and chondrogenic lineages [ 50 ].…”

Evolution of Spinal Cord Transection of Rhesus Monkey Implanted with Polymer Synthesized by Plasma Evaluated by Diffusion Tensor Imaging

“…Once the PPPyI films were synthesized, acetone was applied to separate the films from the substrates and dissolve the remaining oligomers. FT-IR, XPS, TGA and morphological analyses were performed (its characterization has already been reported in previous studies [ 14 , 28 , 29 ]). When removing the polymer from the reactor, flakes of around 1mm thickness are obtained, films were pulverized in an agate mortar to obtain a fine brown powder, which was compressed at 9 tons for 10 min to form a thin tablet.…”

Improved Recovery of Complete Spinal Cord Transection by a Plasma-Modified Fibrillar Scaffold

“…Due to its versatile processability, PLA has been used in many applications [ 25 , 41 , 42 ], such as devices fabricated using different techniques, such as 3D printing or electrospinning [ 40 ]. In particular, electrospinning produces scaffolds that can mimic the extracellular matrix, both its architectural and mechanical properties, by adequately configuring the process parameters [ 26 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. Finetuning the scaffolds’ properties such as porosity, the surface-to-volume ratio, topography, bioactivity, and mechanical compliance constitutes a continuously updated research field [ 45 ].…”

“…Finetuning the scaffolds’ properties such as porosity, the surface-to-volume ratio, topography, bioactivity, and mechanical compliance constitutes a continuously updated research field [ 45 ]. Nevertheless, due to the limited hydrophilicity of PLA, surface modification is usually applied in tissue engineering applications [ 25 , 44 , 46 ].…”