Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, 1 Brookings Dr, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Washington University in St. Louis, 1 Brookings Dr, St. Louis, MO, USA.
J Mater Chem B. 2023 Dec 6;11(47):11357-11371. doi: 10.1039/d3tb01415k.
Conducting hydrogels can be used to fabricate bioelectronic devices that are soft for improved cell- and tissue-interfacing. Those based on conjugated polymers, such as poly(3,4-ethylene-dioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), can be made simply with solution-based processing techniques, yet the influence of fabrication variables on final gel properties is not fully understood. In this study, we investigated if PEDOT:PSS cross-linking could be manipulated by changing the concentration of a gelling agent, ionic liquid, in the hydrogel precursor mixture. Rheology and gelation kinetics of precursor mixtures were investigated, and aqueous stability, swelling, conductivity, stiffness, and cytocompatibility of formed hydrogels were characterized. Increasing ionic liquid concentration was found to increase cross-linking as measured by decreased swelling, decreased non-network fraction, increased stiffness, and increased conductivity. Such manipulation of IL concentration thus afforded control of final gel properties and was utilized in further investigations of biointerfacing. When cross-linked sufficiently, PEDOT:PSS hydrogels were stable in sterile cell culture conditions for at least 28 days. Additionally, hydrogels supported a viable and proliferating population of human dermal fibroblasts for at least two weeks. Collectively, these characterizations of stability and cytocompatibility illustrate that these PEDOT:PSS hydrogels have significant promise for biointerfacing applications that require soft materials for direct interaction with cells.
水凝胶可用于制造软性生物电子器件,以改善细胞和组织的界面。基于共轭聚合物的水凝胶,如聚(3,4-亚乙基二氧噻吩):聚苯乙烯磺酸盐(PEDOT:PSS),可以通过简单的溶液处理技术制造,但制造变量对最终凝胶性能的影响尚未完全了解。在这项研究中,我们研究了通过改变水凝胶前体混合物中凝胶剂、离子液体的浓度是否可以控制 PEDOT:PSS 的交联。研究了前体混合物的流变学和凝胶动力学,并对形成的水凝胶的水稳定性、溶胀性、导电性、硬度和细胞相容性进行了表征。研究发现,随着离子液体浓度的增加,交联程度增加,表现为溶胀度降低、非网络部分减少、硬度增加和导电性增加。因此,通过这种方式控制离子液体浓度可以控制最终凝胶的性能,并进一步用于生物界面研究。当交联充分时,PEDOT:PSS 水凝胶在无菌细胞培养条件下至少稳定 28 天。此外,水凝胶支持人类真皮成纤维细胞的存活和增殖,至少两周。综上所述,这些稳定性和细胞相容性的特征表明,这些 PEDOT:PSS 水凝胶在需要与细胞直接相互作用的软性材料的生物界面应用中具有重要的应用前景。