Issue 40, 2024

Photopatterning of conductive hydrogels which exhibit tissue-like properties

Abstract

Hydrogels are three-dimensional, highly tunable material systems that can match the properties of extracellular matrices. In addition to being widely used to grow and modulate cell behavior, hydrogels can be made conductive to further modulate electrically active cells, such as neurons, and even incorporated into multielectrode arrays to interface with tissues. To enable conductive hydrogels, graphene flakes can be mechanically suspended into a hydrogel precursor. The conductivity of the hydrogel can be increased by increasing the weight percentage of graphene flakes in the precursor while maintaining the mechanical properties of the formed gel similar to the properties of neural tissue. By using a photocrosslinkable hydrogel matrix, such as gelatin methacrylate, with a photoabsorber, the conductive precursor solutions can be crosslinked into predefined complex patterns. Finally, the formulations can be used to support the growth of sensory neurons, derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells, for more than 7 weeks while the neurons remain viable. These scaffolds can be patterned into components of multielectrode arrays, to enable ultrasoft electrodes with tissue-matched properties for further interactions, both in vitro and in vivo, with the nervous systems.

Graphical abstract: Photopatterning of conductive hydrogels which exhibit tissue-like properties

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 apr 2024
Accepted
13 sep 2024
First published
16 sep 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Mater. Chem. B, 2024,12, 10272-10284

Photopatterning of conductive hydrogels which exhibit tissue-like properties

L. Sifringer, L. De Windt, S. Bernhard, G. Amos, B. Clément, J. Duru, M. W. Tibbitt and C. M. Tringides, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2024, 12, 10272 DOI: 10.1039/D4TB00807C

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