Tissue engineering with electrospun electro-responsive chitosan-aniline oligomer/polyvinyl alcohol

Mimicking the native tissue is an ultimate goal in tissue engineering. In this study, conductive chitosan was synthesized by coupling with aniline oligomers, and then conductive nanofibers were fabricated using electrospinning technique to mimic the tissue structure and properties. The conductivity of the resulting biomaterial was adjusted to ca. 10^-5 S/cm, which can recapitulate electrical properties of the tissue. The structure of nanofiber was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy noticing that the aniline oligomer addition to the system decreased the diameter of the nanofiber because of its hydrophobic nature. Conductive nanofiber exhibited on-demand drug release feature of the conductive webs, signaled by 40% rise in the drug release at 40 min after electrical stimulation in comparison with non-stimulated webs, characteristic of a promising drug release platform. Moreover, biocompatibility evaluation using MTT assay revealed that the conductive substrate provides a higher cellular activity to the platform with respect to non-conductive substrates. Such platforms are the harbingers of the emerging new generation, which can revolutionize the tissue engineering satisfying an enhanced tissue regeneration.