Realisation and characterization of conductive hollow fibers for neuronal tissue engineering

Francesca Gattazzo, Carmelo De Maria, Yudan Whulanza, Gemma Taverni, Arti Ahluwalia, Giovanni Vozzi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this article, conductive hollow fibers have been fabricated using melt spinning technique. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) have been used to fabricate conductive poly-caprolactone (PCL) composites. The hollow fibers have inner and outer diameter in the range of 300 μm and 500 μm, respectively. Critical parameters to tune the dimension of hollow fibers have been defined following two-dimensions mathematical model. Evaluation of the mechanical properties showed that the incorporation of 1-3 wt % MWNTs and 5-8 wt % P3HT increased Young Modulus of 10% and 20% respectively, compared with pure PCL. The electrical property assessment demonstrated that a minimum incorporation of 3 wt % MWNT and 8 wt % P3HT in PCL matrix transformed composite materials into conductive materials. In addition, SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells were seeded on the fabricated samples an their adhesion, proliferation and neurite length growth were analysed. In particular we observed that these materials promoted cell activities and in particular on MWNT/PCL composites there was a significant increase of neurite growth.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1107-1119
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part B Applied Biomaterials
Volume103
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2015

Keywords

  • Conductive polymers
  • carbon nanotubes
  • composite hollow fibers
  • doping process
  • impedance measurement
  • mechanical characterization
  • melt spinning
  • poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl)

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