Conducting Biomaterials for Nerve Regeneration

描述：临床研究表明，电刺激可以 加快骨折、浅表创面、神经损伤的愈合。 可用于传输电能的导电生物材料的发展 因此，对培养细胞的刺激是非常有意义的。聚吡咯是一种 电子导电聚合物，已被证明支持生长和 神经元的体外分化及有利于体内再生的研究 损伤大鼠周围神经。聚吡咯在以下领域有很好的应用前景 组织工程学，但不溶不溶，因此，非常 很难处理。这极大地限制了它的实际应用。 该项目的目标是开发生物相容和可再吸收的 基于聚吡咯的组织工程导电生物材料 可从解决方案处理的应用程序。新材料将被使用 将用于修复周围神经损伤的引导通道涂覆并 将作为体外和体内神经元再生的载体进行测试。TDA的 材料承诺具有相同的表面和电学性能 聚吡咯，但可溶于水或普通有机溶剂， 因此，很容易成形成薄膜或其他复杂形状。TDA的 聚合物将完全可生物降解，并具有更好的机械性能 而不是聚吡咯。 建议的商业应用： TDA的导电和可吸收生物材料将用作 神经引导通道内表面，刺激神经元生长和神经修复。 TDA的生物材料可能会被用于其他组织工程应用，包括作为 作为上皮细胞和骨替代物的支架。TDA的可溶性导电聚合物可以 也有非生物医学应用作为抗静电材料，用于EMI屏蔽，在电子产品中 部件和雷达吸收材料。

DESCRIPTION: Clinical studies have shown that electrical stimulation can accelerate the healing of bone fractures, superficial wounds, and nerve damage. The development of conducting biomaterials that can be used to deliver electric stimuli to cultured cells is, therefore, of great interest. Polypyrrole is a an electronic conducting polymer that has been demonstrated to support growth and differentiation of neurons in vitro and to favor the in vivo regeneration of damaged peripheral nerves in rats. Polypyrrole has promising applications in tissue engineering, but is insoluble and infusible and, therefore, very difficult to process. This considerably limits its practical applications. The objective of this project is to develop biocompatible and resorbable conducting biomaterials based on polypyrrole for tissue engineering applications that are processable from solution. The new materials will be used to coat the guidance channels used for repairing peripheral nerve injuries and will be tested as supports for neuron regeneration in vitro and in vivo. TDA's material promises to have the same surface and electrical properties of polypyrrole, yet will be soluble in water or common organic solvents and, therefore, easily formable into thin films or other complex shapes. TDA's polymer will be completely biodegradable and have better mechanical properties than polypyrrole. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: TDA's electrically conducting and resorbable biomaterials will be used as a coating on the inside surface of nerve guidance channels to stimulate neuron growth and nerve repair. TDA's biomaterials may find use in other tissue engineering applications including as a scaffold for epithelial cells and as a bone substitute. TDA's soluble conducting polymer could also have non-biomedical applications as an antistatic material, for EMI-shielding, in electronic components and radar-absorbing materials.