Issue 3, 2018

Liquid crystal elastomer foams with elastic properties specifically engineered as biodegradable brain tissue scaffolds

Abstract

Tissue regeneration requires 3-dimensional (3D) smart materials as scaffolds to promote transport of nutrients. To mimic mechanical properties of extracellular matrices, biocompatible polymers have been widely studied and a diverse range of 3D scaffolds have been produced. We propose the use of responsive polymeric materials to create dynamic substrates for cell culture, which goes beyond designing only a physical static 3D scaffold. Here, we demonstrated that lactone- and lactide-based star block-copolymers (SBCs), where a liquid crystal (LC) moiety has been attached as a side-group, can be crosslinked to obtain Liquid Crystal Elastomers (LCEs) with a porous architecture using a salt-leaching method to promote cell infiltration. The obtained SmA LCE-based fully interconnected-porous foams exhibit a Young modulus of 0.23 ± 0.07 MPa and a biodegradability rate of around 20% after 15 weeks both of which are optimized to mimic native environments. We present cell culture results showing growth and proliferation of neurons on the scaffold after four weeks. This research provides a new platform to analyse LCE scaffold–cell interactions where the presence of liquid crystal moieties promotes cell alignment paving the way for a stimulated brain-like tissue.

Graphical abstract: Liquid crystal elastomer foams with elastic properties specifically engineered as biodegradable brain tissue scaffolds

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 sept. 2017
Accepted
05 déc. 2017
First published
13 déc. 2017

Soft Matter, 2018,14, 354-360

Liquid crystal elastomer foams with elastic properties specifically engineered as biodegradable brain tissue scaffolds

M. E. Prévôt, H. Andro, S. L. M. Alexander, S. Ustunel, C. Zhu, Z. Nikolov, S. T. Rafferty, M. T. Brannum, B. Kinsel, L. T. J. Korley, E. J. Freeman, J. A. McDonough, R. J. Clements and E. Hegmann, Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 354 DOI: 10.1039/C7SM01949A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements