Conducting Polymer‐Based Granular Hydrogels for Injectable 3D Cell Scaffolds
Abstract
Injectable 3D cell scaffolds possessing both electrical conductivity and native tissue‐level softness would provide a platform to leverage electric fields to manipulate stem cell behavior. Granular hydrogels, which combine jamming‐induced elasticity with repeatable injectability, are versatile materials to easily encapsulate cells to form injectable 3D niches. In this work, it is demonstrated that electrically conductive granular hydrogels can be fabricated via a simple method involving fragmentation of a bulk hydrogel made from the conducting polymer PEDOT:PSS. These granular conductors exhibit excellent shear‐thinning and self‐healing behavior, as well as record‐high electrical conductivity for an injectable 3D scaffold material (≈10 S m−1). Their granular microstructure also enables them to easily encapsulate induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)‐derived neural progenitor cells, which are viable for at least 5 d within the injectable gel matrices. Finally, gel biocompatibility is demonstrated with minimal observed inflammatory response when injected into a rodent brain.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 25, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1002/admt.202100162
Entities
People
- Helen Tran
- Kathy Liu
- Kelly Wu Mcconnell
- Lucia Giulia Brunel
- Matine Azadian
- Paul M. George
- Sruthi Santhanam
- Vivian R Feig
- Zhenan Bao
- Zhuojun Huang
Organizations
- National Institutes of Health
- National Science Foundation
- Stanford University
- United States Department of Defense