ELECTROHYDRODYNAMIC-JET 3D PRINTED CONDUCTIVE POROUS SCAFFOLDS FOR NEURONAL TISSUE REGENERATION

Abstract

Nerve autografting is the current gold standard for treatment of peripheral nerve injuries despite its limitations which include donor site morbidity and limited supply. Neural guide conduits (NGCs) are increasingly being considered as potential alternative. Current NGC fabrication methods suffer from many limitations i.e. inability to control the pore size, porosity & scaffold interconnectivity, less repeatability, and no defined multi-layer structure. Electrohydrodynamic jet 3D printing is proposed as a reliable and scalable technique for NGC fabrication. Polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds with five different pore sizes (125 to 550 μm) were fabricated and in vitro neural differentiation studies proved that 125 ± 15 μm pore size scaffolds was the best. Conductivity is a desired property of an ideal NGC. Conductive PCL/ Poly (acrylic acid), PCL/reduced graphene oxide, and PCL/ Polypyrrole (PPy)-b-PCL scaffolds with different concentrations were fabricated and tested, which have the potential to be used in the peripheral nerve injury treatment.