Electroactive soft materials for a nerve regeneration tube

초록

We developed an electroactive soft material using extracellular matrix (ECM) composites, which is for 3 dimensional peripheral nerve regeneration conduits. First, in order to produce a biocompatible, biodegradable, and viscoelastic ECM material, we designed a new bioreactor system which mimics microenvironments of peripheral nerve tissues. Then, we cultivated human adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) in the bioreactor. This ADSC cultivation produced an ECM scaffold with similar mechanical properties as targeted tissues when it was decellularized. We further modified the ECMs with electroactive coating by layer-by-layer assembly techniques. We expect that this functionally modified biocompatible ECM scaffold would have faster nerve regeneration potentials by advanced signal transmission through a conduit.