Electrospun Polythiophene Phenylenes for Tissue Engineering

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.