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A conducting polymer with enhanced electronic stability applied in cardiac models

Mawad D 1 , Mansfield C 2 , Lauto A 3 , Perbellini F 2 , Nelson GW 4 , Tonkin J 2 Show all authors , Bello SO 2 , Carrad DJ 5 , Micolich AP 5 , Mahat MM 6 , Furman J 2 , Payne D 4 , Lyon AR 7 , Gooding JJ 8 , Harding SE 9 , Terracciano CM 2 , Stevens MM 10

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Bioengineering, and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K.; Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K.; School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia
  • 2 National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K
  • 3 Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience Research Group, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, New South Wales 2751, Australia
  • 4 Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K
  • 5 School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia
  • 6 Department of Bioengineering, and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K.; Faculty of Applied Sciences Universiti Teknologi Mara, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 7 National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K.; National Institute for Health Research Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, U.K
  • 8 School of Chemistry, Australian Centre for NanoMedicine and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia
  • 9 National Institute for Health Research Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, U.K
  • 10 Department of Bioengineering, and Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K.; Department of Materials, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K
Sci Adv, 2016 Nov;2(11):e1601007.
PMID: 28138526 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601007

Abstract

Electrically active constructs can have a beneficial effect on electroresponsive tissues, such as the brain, heart, and nervous system. Conducting polymers (CPs) are being considered as components of these constructs because of their intrinsic electroactive and flexible nature. However, their clinical application has been largely hampered by their short operational time due to a decrease in their electronic properties. We show that, by immobilizing the dopant in the conductive scaffold, we can prevent its electric deterioration. We grew polyaniline (PANI) doped with phytic acid on the surface of a chitosan film. The strong chelation between phytic acid and chitosan led to a conductive patch with retained electroactivity, low surface resistivity (35.85 ± 9.40 kilohms per square), and oxidized form after 2 weeks of incubation in physiological medium. Ex vivo experiments revealed that the conductive nature of the patch has an immediate effect on the electrophysiology of the heart. Preliminary in vivo experiments showed that the conductive patch does not induce proarrhythmogenic activities in the heart. Our findings set the foundation for the design of electronically stable CP-based scaffolds. This provides a robust conductive system that could be used at the interface with electroresponsive tissue to better understand the interaction and effect of these materials on the electrophysiology of these tissues.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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