Garrudo Fábio F F, Filippone Giulia, Resina Leonor, Silva João C, Barbosa Frederico, Ferreira Luís F V, Esteves Teresa, Marques Ana Clara, Morgado Jorge, Ferreira Frederico Castelo
Instituto de Telecomunicações, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Jun 21;15(13):2760. doi: 10.3390/polym15132760.
This study describes, for the first time, the successful incorporation of poly(ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) in Poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN) fibers. While electroconductive PEDOT:PSS is extremely challenging to electrospun into fibers. Therefore, PAN, a polymer easy to electrospun, was chosen as a carrier due to its biocompatibility and tunable chemical stability when cross-linked, particularly using strong acids. PAN:PEDOT:PSS blends, prepared from PEDOT:PSS Clevios PH1000, were electrospun into fibers (PH1000) with a diameter of 515 ± 120 nm, which after being thermally annealed (PH1000 24H) and treated with heated sulfuric acid (PH1000 HSO), resulted in fibers with diameters of 437 ± 109 and 940 ± 210 nm, respectively. The fibers obtained over the stepwise process were characterized through infra-red/Raman spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The final fiber meshes showed enhanced electroconductivity (3.2 × 10 S cm, four-points-assay). Fiber meshes biocompatibility was evaluated using fibroblasts and neural stem cells (NSCs) following, respectively, the ISO10993 guidelines and standard adhesion/proliferation assay. NSCs cultured on PH1000 HSO fibers presented normal morphology and high proliferation rates (0.37 day vs. 0.16 day for culture plate), indicating high biocompatibility for NSCs. Still, the low initial NSC adhesion of 7% calls for improving seeding methodologies. PAN:PEDOT:PSS fibers, here successful produced for the first time, have potential applications in neural tissue engineering and soft electronics.
本研究首次描述了将聚（3,4-乙撑二氧噻吩）：聚（苯乙烯磺酸盐）（PEDOT:PSS）成功掺入聚丙烯腈（PAN）纤维中的过程。虽然导电的PEDOT:PSS极难通过电纺制成纤维。因此，PAN这种易于电纺的聚合物因其生物相容性以及交联时（特别是使用强酸交联时）可调节的化学稳定性而被选作载体。由PEDOT:PSS Clevios PH1000制备的PAN:PEDOT:PSS共混物被电纺成直径为515±120 nm的纤维（PH1000），经过热退火（PH1000 24H）和热硫酸处理（PH1000 HSO）后，分别得到直径为437±109 nm和940±210 nm的纤维。通过红外/拉曼光谱和循环伏安法对逐步过程中获得的纤维进行了表征。最终的纤维网显示出增强的导电性（3.2×10 S cm，四点测定法）。分别按照ISO10993指南和标准粘附/增殖试验，使用成纤维细胞和神经干细胞（NSCs）对纤维网的生物相容性进行了评估。在PH1000 HSO纤维上培养的NSCs呈现出正常形态且增殖率高（培养板为0.16天，此处为0.37天），表明对NSCs具有高生物相容性。不过，初始NSC粘附率低至7%，这就需要改进接种方法。本文首次成功制备的PAN:PEDOT:PSS纤维在神经组织工程和柔性电子学方面具有潜在应用。
