Hydrogel/fiber conductive scaffold for bone tissue engineering

Hydrogel/fiber composites have emerged as compelling scaffolds for regeneration purposes. Any biorelated modification or feature may endow more regenerative functionality to these composites. In the present study, a hydrogel/fiber scaffold possessing electrical conductivity in both phases, hydrogel and fiber, has been prepared and evaluated. Fiber component possessed electrical conductivity due to the presence of polyaniline (PANi) and hydrogel fraction thanks to the presence of graphene nanoparticles. PANi based fibers were processed through electrospinning and transformed into a three-dimensional structure through ultrasonication. The hydrogel precursor solution composed of oxidized polysaccharides, gelatin and graphene with predesigned ratio was added to fibers and left to gel. The results of assessments on pristine hydrogel and hydrogel/fiber denoted that inclusion of conducting fibers into hydrogel increased elastic modulus, roughness and electrical conductivity, whereas decreased hydrophilicity. Moreover, the results showed that hydrogel/fiber composite better supported human osteoblast-like cell adhesion, proliferation, and morphology comparing hydrogel alone. In a nutshell, the presence of gel/fiber architecture along with electrical conductivity may lead the scaffold to be very promising for bone regeneration. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 718-724, 2018.