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Conductive Polymers and Composites for Medical Application
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Conductive Polymers and Composites for Medical Application

A special issue of Journal of Functional Biomaterials (ISSN 2079-4983).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2020) | Viewed by 9110

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vincenzo Guarino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Polymers, Composites and Biomaterials, National Research Council of Italy, 80125 Naples, Italy
Interests: biomaterials design and processing; electrospinning and electrofluidodynamic processes; morphological characterization; tissue engineering
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Sylvia W. Thomas

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Interests: biological, biomedical and electronic devices using advanced materials and nanostructures; electrospinning processes; morphological and electrical characterization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Conductive polymers (CPs) are a class of organic materials with peculiar electrical and optical properties comparable with those of inorganic semiconductors and metals. They include synthetic or structurally modified natural polymers, which can be accurately controlled by modifying chemical and/or physical properties, for functionality in specific applications. Relevant benefits—including flexibility, high workability, light weight, biocompatibility to some extent – make them suitable candidates for the development of smart materials—namely materials with highly controllable behavior in response to external stimuli - for a variety of applications in the biomedical field (i.e., cell guiding scaffolds, smart molecular release systems, bioelectronics and biosensing). Moreover, CPs can be combined with various types of materials at the nanoscale (i.e., graphene, fullerene, nanotubes, nanoparticles, nano-diamonds, metal ions) creating the opportunity to develop conductive composite materials with hierarchical structural organizations and multi-level functional properties, extending the applicability of CPs also to structural applications.

This Special Issue aims at describing the recent progress in the design and investigation of functional conductive polymers and composite materials as smart devices to be applied in, but not limited to, biomaterials, bioengineering and bioelectronics. Both original articles and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Vincenzo Guarino
Dr. Sylvia W. Thomas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Functional Biomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • semiconductors
  • nanocomposites
  • electrical conductivity
  • organic biomaterials
  • bio-sensing
  • bio-electronics

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 3605 KiB  
Article
Optimization of Polydopamine Coatings onto Poly–ε–Caprolactone Electrospun Fibers for the Fabrication of Bio-Electroconductive Interfaces
by Simona Zuppolini, Iriczalli Cruz-Maya, Vincenzo Guarino and Anna Borriello
J. Funct. Biomater. 2020, 11(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/jfb11010019 - 17 Mar 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4413
Abstract
In recent years, mussel adhesive proteins have attracted much attention because they can form strong adhesive interface interactions with various substrates in a wet environment. Inspired by their catechol- and amine-based molecular structure, polydopamine (PDA), a dopamine derived synthetic eumelanin polymer, was recognized [...] Read more.
In recent years, mussel adhesive proteins have attracted much attention because they can form strong adhesive interface interactions with various substrates in a wet environment. Inspired by their catechol- and amine-based molecular structure, polydopamine (PDA), a dopamine derived synthetic eumelanin polymer, was recognized as a suitable bio-interface coating. PDA was successfully used to improve adhesion due to the availability of copious functional groups for covalently immobilizing biomolecules and anchoring reactive species and ions. Recently, it has been demonstrated that PDA and its derivatives can be successfully used for the surface modification of implants interfaces to modulate in vitro cellular responses in order to enhance the in vivo functionality of biomedical implants (i.e., prosthesis). Herein, we propose the development of multifunctional scaffolds based on polyε–caprolactone (PCL) electrospun fibers coated with PDA via electro fluid dynamic methods, by optimizing polymerization/oxidation reactions capable of driving PDA self–assembly, and, ultimately, investigating the effects on cell response. Morphological analyses have confirmed the possibility to obtain different surface topographies as a function of the coating process while in vitro studies proved the ability of PDA coating to interact with cells no compromising in vitro viability. In perspective, in vitro conductive properties of fibers will be further investigated in order to validate their promising use as bioconductive interfaces for tissue engineering applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conductive Polymers and Composites for Medical Application)
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11 pages, 3328 KiB  
Article
Quantitative Study of Morphological Features of Stem Cells onto Photopatterned Azopolymer Films
by Marcella Salvatore, Stefano Luigi Oscurato, Marietta D’Albore, Vincenzo Guarino, Stefania Zeppetelli, Pasqualino Maddalena, Antonio Ambrosio and Luigi Ambrosio
J. Funct. Biomater. 2020, 11(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/jfb11010008 - 14 Feb 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3990
Abstract
In the last decade, the use of photolithography for the fabrication of structured substrates with controlled morphological patterns that are able to interact with cells at micrometric and nanometric size scales is strongly growing. A promising simple and versatile microfabrication method is based [...] Read more.
In the last decade, the use of photolithography for the fabrication of structured substrates with controlled morphological patterns that are able to interact with cells at micrometric and nanometric size scales is strongly growing. A promising simple and versatile microfabrication method is based on the physical mass transport induced by visible light in photosensitive azobenzene-containing polymers (or azopolymers). Such light-driven material transport produces a modulation of the surface of the azopolymer film, whose geometry is controlled by the intensity and the polarization distributions of the irradiated light. Herein, two anisotropic structured azopolymer films have been used as substrates to evaluate the effects of topological signals on the in vitro response of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). The light-induced substrate patterns consist of parallel microgrooves, which are produced in a spatially confined or over large-scale areas of the samples, respectively. The analysis of confocal optical images of the in vitro hMSC cells grown on the patterned films offered relevant information about cell morphology—i.e., nuclei deformation and actin filaments elongation—in relation to the geometry and the spatial extent of the structured area of substrates. The results, together with the possibility of simple, versatile, and cost-effective light-induced structuration of azopolymers, promise the successful use of these materials as anisotropic platforms to study the cell guidance mechanisms governing in vitro tissue formation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conductive Polymers and Composites for Medical Application)
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