Blood-compatible Polyaniline Coated Electrospun Polyurethane Fiber Scaffolds for Enhanced Adhesion and Proliferation of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells

Abstract

The endothelialization and anti-thrombotic abilities of tissue engineered vascular scaffolds are considered to be effective properties for improving the performance small-caliber vascular scaffolds. For this purpose, we designed and developed electrically conductive fibrous scaffolds based on polyaniline coated polyurethane (PANI-PU) electrospun fibers for vascular tissue engineering applications. The porosity of PANI-PU fibers was 75.27±2.04 %. The obtained PANI-PU fibers were characterized by SEM observations, XPS analysis, water contact angle (WCA) measurement and mechanical property. The PANI functionalization aimed to improve the performance of anticoagulation and endothelialization. The WCA of PAIN-PU decreased to 35° from 135° of PU fibers. Blood compatibility and cytocompatibility were compared before and after PANI coating. The adhered platelet cells on PANI-PU was 6.87×105/cm2 and plasma recalcification time was 123 s. Platelet adhesion and plasma recalcification time test showed that the PANI-PU scaffolds had a certain anticoagulant effect. The hemolysis rate of PANI-PU fibers was 0.14 %, which showed that the PANI-PU scaffolds could be used as blood contact materials. The observation of endothelial cell proliferation and morphology in human umbilical vein endothelial cells showed that PANI-PU fibers were more beneficial to cell adhesion, proliferation and extension than that of PU fibers. The results demonstrates the PANI coated electrospun PU fibers have great potential in application as small-diameter vascular grafts and this work shows new insights into conductive scaffolds for vascular tissue engineering.