Facile and controllable electrochemical fabrication of cell-adhesive polypyrrole electrodes using pyrrole-RGD peptides

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Electrically conductive polymers, such as polypyrrole (PPy), have been widely used for the fabrication of various biosensors and tissue engineering scaffolds. For their biologically relevant applications, conductive biomaterials capable of intimate cellular interactions are highly desired. However, conventional methods to incorporate biomolecules into conductive polymers do not offer fine and easy control over the surface density of the biomolecules and/or their stability. We present a novel method to electrochemically immobilize cell-adhesive Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) ligands on PPy electrode surfaces with a simple control over the peptide surface density by varying the electrodeposition time. Synthesized pyrrole-GGGRGDS conjugates were electrochemically incorporated onto the surfaces of PPy-coated electrodes. The electrochemical impedances of the RGD-grafted PPy electrodes were not significantly different from the unmodified PPy films. Time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectroscopy confirmed the presence of the RGD motif on the surface of the modified electrodes. In vitro studies with human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) showed higher adhesion and faster proliferation of hMSCs on the PPy with a higher RGD density. This facile electrochemical modification of electrode surfaces allowed for a good control over the peptide surface density and cellular interactions and will benefit the fabrication of cell-interactive scaffolds or bio-electrodes.