Liquid crystal elastomer foams with elastic properties specifically engineered as biodegradable brain tissue scaffolds
Liquid crystal elastomer foams with elastic properties specifically engineered as biodegradable brain tissue scaffolds
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DOI：
10.1039/c7sm01949a
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发表时间：
2018-01-21
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Hegmann, E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Prevot, M. E.;Andro, H.;Hegmann, E.
组织再生需要三维（3D）智能材料作为支架，以促进营养物质的运输。为了模拟细胞外基质的机械性能，生物相容性聚合物已被广泛研究，并已生产出各种各样的3D支架。我们建议使用响应性聚合物材料来创建用于细胞培养的动态基底，这超出了仅设计物理静态3D支架。在这里，我们证明，内酯和丙交酯为基础的星星嵌段共聚物（SBC），其中液晶（LC）部分已被连接作为侧基，可以交联，以获得液晶弹性体（LCE）与多孔结构使用盐浸出方法，以促进细胞渗透。所获得的SmA LCE基完全互连多孔泡沫表现出0.23 +/-0.07MPa的杨氏模量和15周后约20%的生物降解率，这两者都被优化以模拟天然环境。我们目前的细胞培养结果显示，四周后的支架上的神经元的生长和增殖。这项研究提供了一个新的平台来分析LCE支架-细胞相互作用，其中液晶部分的存在促进了细胞排列，为刺激的脑样组织铺平了道路。
Tissue regeneration requires 3-dimensional (3D) smart materials as scaffolds to promote transport of nutrients. To mimic mechanical properties of extracellular matrices, biocompatible polymers have been widely studied and a diverse range of 3D scaffolds have been produced. We propose the use of responsive polymeric materials to create dynamic substrates for cell culture, which goes beyond designing only a physical static 3D scaffold. Here, we demonstrated that lactone- and lactide-based star block-copolymers (SBCs), where a liquid crystal (LC) moiety has been attached as a side-group, can be crosslinked to obtain Liquid Crystal Elastomers (LCEs) with a porous architecture using a salt-leaching method to promote cell infiltration. The obtained SmA LCE-based fully interconnected-porous foams exhibit a Young modulus of 0.23 +/- 0.07 MPa and a biodegradability rate of around 20% after 15 weeks both of which are optimized to mimic native environments. We present cell culture results showing growth and proliferation of neurons on the scaffold after four weeks. This research provides a new platform to analyse LCE scaffold-cell interactions where the presence of liquid crystal moieties promotes cell alignment paving the way for a stimulated brain-like tissue.