Fabrication and characterization of conductive chitosan/gelatin-based scaffolds for nerve tissue engineering

Abstract

This paper reports on the development of conductive porous scaffolds by incorporating conductive polyaniline/graphene (PAG) nanoparticles into a chitosan/gelatin matrix for its potential application in peripheral nerve regeneration. The effect of PAG content on the various properties of the scaffold is investigated and the results showed that the electrical conductivity and mechanical properties increased proportional to the increase in the PAG loading, while the porosity, swelling ratio and in vitro biodegradability decreased. In addition, the biocompatibility was evaluated by assessing the adhesion and proliferation of Schwann cells on the prepared scaffolds using SEM and MTT assay, respectively. In summary, this work supports the use of a porous conductive chitosan/gelatin/PAG scaffold with a low amount of PAG (2.5 wt.%) as a suitable material having proper conductivity, mechanical properties and biocompatibility that may be appropriate for different biomedical applications such as scaffold material in tissue engineering for neural repair or other biomedical devices that require electroactivity.

Keywords: Biocompatibility; Conductivity; PAG.