Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 28;7(1):4345. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-04280-w.
Conventional methods to engineer electroconductive hydrogels (ECHs) through the incorporation of conductive nanomaterials and polymers exhibit major technical limitations. These are mainly associated with the cytotoxicity, as well as poor solubility, processability, and biodegradability of their components. Here, we describe the engineering of a new class of ECHs through the functionalization of non-conductive polymers with a conductive choline-based bio-ionic liquid (Bio-IL). Bio-IL conjugated hydrogels exhibited a wide range of highly tunable physical properties, remarkable in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility, and high electrical conductivity without the need for additional conductive components. The engineered hydrogels could support the growth and function of primary cardiomyocytes in both two dimentinal (2D) and three dimensional (3D) cultures in vitro. Furthermore, they were shown to be efficiently biodegraded and possess low immunogenicity when implanted subcutaneously in rats. Taken together, our results suggest that Bio-IL conjugated hydrogels could be implemented and readily tailored to different biomedical and tissue engineering applications.
通过引入导电纳米材料和聚合物来构建导电水凝胶（ECH）的传统方法存在重大技术限制。这些限制主要与它们的组成部分的细胞毒性以及较差的溶解度、可加工性和生物降解性有关。在这里，我们通过用导电胆碱基生物离子液体（Bio-IL）对非导电聚合物进行功能化，来描述一类新型 ECH 的工程设计。Bio-IL 共轭水凝胶表现出广泛的高度可调的物理性质，具有出色的体外和体内生物相容性，以及无需额外导电成分的高导电性。所设计的水凝胶能够支持原代心肌细胞在体外二维（2D）和三维（3D）培养中的生长和功能。此外，当它们被皮下植入大鼠体内时，被证明能够有效地生物降解且免疫原性低。总之，我们的研究结果表明，Bio-IL 共轭水凝胶可用于不同的生物医学和组织工程应用，并可进行灵活定制。
