Preparation of carbon-based conductive hydrogels and their potential for promoting nerve regeneration

IF 23.2 2区材料科学 Q1 MATERIALS SCIENCE, COMPOSITES

Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials Pub Date : 2025-02-24 DOI:10.1007/s42114-025-01261-w

Shuhui Yang, Jie Pan, Haijing Fu, Jingchuan Zheng, Fang Chen, Mingchen Zhang, Zhe Gong, Kaiyu Liang, Chengcheng Wang, Juncheng Lai, Xiangqian Fang, Jinjin Zhu

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Abstract

Conductive hydrogels have the potential to facilitate nerve regeneration through various mechanisms, including providing physical support, enabling electrical signal transmission, and stimulating nerve cells to release growth factors. Carbon-based conductive materials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene oxide (GO), are widely used in the construction of conductive hydrogels due to their advantages in electrical conductivity and biosafety. Herein, we fabricated conductive hydrogels by incorporating CNTs or GO into gelatin or chitosan. The gelatin- and chitosan-based electrospun fiber hydrogels were synthesized at room temperature using acetic acid/hexafluoroisopropanol and acetic acid/water as solvents, respectively. Subsequently, we investigated the morphology, swelling properties, mechanical properties, and electrical performance of the hydrogels. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images verified the uniform distribution of CNTs and GO within the different hydrogel formulations. The network structure formed by CNTs enhanced the swelling rate of the hydrogels. The incorporation of CNTs and GO elevated the compression elastic moduli of the hydrogels. Conductivity experiments revealed that the conductivity of graphene oxide was significantly improved upon soaking with sodium ascorbate. Notably, chitosan hydrogels containing reduced graphene oxide exhibited the highest conductivity. Pheochromocytoma 12 (PC12) cells could adhere to and spread on the hydrogels surface. These findings suggest that conductive hydrogels hold great promise as candidates for nerve repair in the future.

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碳基导电水凝胶的制备及其促进神经再生的潜力

导电性水凝胶具有通过多种机制促进神经再生的潜力，包括提供物理支持，使电信号传输，刺激神经细胞释放生长因子。碳基导电材料，如碳纳米管（CNTs）和氧化石墨烯（GO），由于其在导电性和生物安全性方面的优势，被广泛应用于导电水凝胶的构建。本文中，我们通过将碳纳米管或氧化石墨烯掺入明胶或壳聚糖中制备导电水凝胶。以乙酸/六氟异丙醇和乙酸/水为溶剂，在室温下分别合成了明胶基和壳聚糖基静电纺纤维水凝胶。随后，我们研究了水凝胶的形态、膨胀性能、机械性能和电性能。扫描电镜（SEM）图像验证了不同水凝胶配方中碳纳米管和氧化石墨烯的均匀分布。CNTs形成的网状结构提高了水凝胶的溶胀速率。CNTs和GO的掺入提高了水凝胶的压缩弹性模量。电导率实验表明，抗坏血酸钠浸泡后，氧化石墨烯的电导率显著提高。值得注意的是，壳聚糖水凝胶含有还原氧化石墨烯表现出最高的导电性。嗜铬细胞瘤12 （PC12）细胞能在水凝胶表面粘附并扩散。这些发现表明，导电水凝胶作为未来神经修复的候选材料具有很大的前景。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials Multiple-

CiteScore

26.00

自引率

21.40%

发文量

185

期刊介绍： Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials is a leading international journal that promotes interdisciplinary collaboration among materials scientists, engineers, chemists, biologists, and physicists working on composites, including nanocomposites. Our aim is to facilitate rapid scientific communication in this field. The journal publishes high-quality research on various aspects of composite materials, including materials design, surface and interface science/engineering, manufacturing, structure control, property design, device fabrication, and other applications. We also welcome simulation and modeling studies that are relevant to composites. Additionally, papers focusing on the relationship between fillers and the matrix are of particular interest. Our scope includes polymer, metal, and ceramic matrices, with a special emphasis on reviews and meta-analyses related to materials selection. We cover a wide range of topics, including transport properties, strategies for controlling interfaces and composition distribution, bottom-up assembly of nanocomposites, highly porous and high-density composites, electronic structure design, materials synergisms, and thermoelectric materials. Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials follows a rigorous single-blind peer-review process to ensure the quality and integrity of the published work.