Polymer Electronics Research Centre, School of Chemical Sciences , The University of Auckland , Private Bag 92019, Auckland , New Zealand.
MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology , Victoria University of Wellington , P.O. Box 600, Wellington , New Zealand.
Biomacromolecules. 2018 May 14;19(5):1456-1468. doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.8b00341. Epub 2018 Apr 16.
This research focuses on the design of biocompatible materials/scaffold suitable for use for tissue engineering. Porous fiber mats were produced through electrospinning of polythiophene phenylene (PThP) conducting polymers blended with poly(lactide- co-glycolic acid) (PLGA). A peptide containing an arginylglycylaspartic acid (RGD) fragment was synthesized using solid phase peptide synthesis and subsequently grafted onto a PThP polymer using azide-alkyne "click" chemistry. The obtained RGD functionalized PThP was also electrospun into a fiber mat. The electrospun mats' morphology, roughness and stiffness were studied by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) and their electroactivity by cyclic voltammetry. The fibers show excellent cytocompatibility in culture assays with human dermal fibroblasts-adult (HDFa) and human epidermal melanocytes-adult (HEMa) cells. The electrospun fibers' roughness and stiffness changed after exposing the fiber mats to the cell culture medium (measured in dry state), but these changes did not affect the cell proliferation. The cytocompatibility of our porous scaffolds was established for their applicability as cell culture scaffolds by means of investigating mitochondrial activity of HDFa and HEMa cells on the scaffolds. The results revealed that the RGD moieties containing PThP scaffolds hold a promise in biomedical applications, including skin tissue engineering.
本研究专注于设计适合组织工程应用的生物相容性材料/支架。通过将聚噻吩苯撑（PThP）导电聚合物与聚（乳酸-共-乙醇酸）（PLGA）共混进行静电纺丝，制备了多孔纤维垫。使用固相肽合成合成了一种含有精氨酸-甘氨酸-天冬氨酸（RGD）片段的肽，并使用叠氮-炔基“点击”化学将其接枝到 PThP 聚合物上。所得的 RGD 功能化 PThP 也被静电纺成纤维垫。通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和原子力显微镜（AFM）研究了电纺纤维垫的形态、粗糙度和刚性，并通过循环伏安法研究了其电活性。纤维在与成人皮肤成纤维细胞（HDFa）和成人表皮黑素细胞（HEMa）的培养试验中显示出优异的细胞相容性。在将纤维垫暴露于细胞培养基中后（在干燥状态下测量），纤维的粗糙度和刚性发生了变化，但这些变化并不影响细胞增殖。通过研究 HDFa 和 HEMa 细胞在支架上的线粒体活性，确立了我们多孔支架的细胞相容性，以证明其作为细胞培养支架的适用性。结果表明，含有 RGD 部分的 PThP 支架在生物医学应用中具有广阔的前景，包括皮肤组织工程。
