Preparation and Characterization of Electrospun rGO-Poly(ester amide) Tissue Engineering Scaffolds

Tissue engineering scaffolds should support tissue maturation through exposure to biologically relevant stimuli and through successful cell infiltration. External electrical stimulation is particularly relevant for cardiac and neural applications, and requires conductive scaffolds to propagate electrical signals; cell infiltration is only possible with scaffolds that have sufficient porosity. The aim of this study was to impart conductivity and increased porosity of electrospun poly(ester amide) (PEA) scaffolds. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was incorporated into blend PEA and coaxial PEA-chitosan fibrous scaffolds, which increased scaffold conductivity and supported cardiac differentiation. The novel combination of ultrasonication and leaching of a sacrificial polymer was used to modify scaffold porosity, and resulted in an increase in pore area evaluated through image analysis. This approach aims to potentially promote tissue maturation with electrospun PEA scaffolds, by modifying both scaffold conductivity and porosity. This extends the relevance of electrospun PEA scaffolds to cardiac tissue engineering for the first time.

Name thesis:degree_name

M Eng Sci

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biomedical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Stone, Hilary

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mequanint, Kibret

• tissue engineering
• electrospinning
• poly(ester amide)s
• reduced graphene oxide
• conductive scaffolds
• scaffold porosity

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/28196

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/28196