4D electroactive and microporous polyHIPE-PEDOT scaffolds as a dynamic in vitro cell culture platform
Résumé
In vivo, cells are surrounded by an extracellular matrix (ECM). Signals from the ECM such as biochemical or biophysical cues regulate cell behavior in physio-pathological processes. Therefore, mimicking this cell microenvironment is one of the most important challenges in the fields of physio-pathological research, tissue engineering or drug screening. Although 3D cell cultures offer biologically superior structures, there is still a lack in the transmission of dynamic mechanical signals that exist in the microenvironment of cells in vivo. The aim of this work is to develop a 3D microporous and electroactive scaffold as an innovative cell culture platform that enables the in situ electromechanical stimulation of cells and the real-time monitoring of the cell behavior. For this purpose, a 3D microporous scaffold is polymerized from a high internal phase emulsion template. This, so called polyHIPE, is characterized by a high interconnectivity and a suitable porosity for a rapid cell colonization. In a further step the polyHIPE-scaffold was homogenously functionalized with a conducting polymer, the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), via vapor phase swelling and an oxidative polymerization process with iron(III) chloride. The functionalization leads to a 4D electroactive polyHIPE-PEDOT scaffold with stimuli-responsive properties such as changes in shape, morphology, pore size or stiffness under time-dependent external stimulation. These properties are kept after sterilization via autoclavation, in cell culture medium and also in the presence of human dermal fibroblast. We could show that the stimulation process is reversible, stable and generates volume variations of 10% on the polyHIPE-PEDOT scaffolds. Unstimulated polyHIPE-PEDOT scaffolds supported cell adhesion, spreading, migration, cell viability, and ECM secretion. Furthermore, we could stimulate human dermal fibroblasts up to 5h on the polyHIPE-PEDOT scaffolds. The cells showed no significant difference in cell number compared to the unstimulated reference. We believe that the developed 4D electroactive polyHIPE-PEDOT scaffold are a promising dynamic cell culture platform to follow the mechanotransduction in vitro.
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