مشخصات پژوهش

Tissue engineering of peripheral nerves has gain an increasing interest in regenerative medicine. Culturing neural cells on magnetoconductive scaffolds, due to their combination of magnetic and electrical properties, promotes their proliferation and differentiation. In this study a novel composite scaffold based on iron oxide-polyaniline/chitosan-gelatin (Fe3O4-PANI/CS-Gel) was developed. The synthesized Fe3O4-PANI composite was characterized using FTIR, XRD, electrical conductivity and magnetic properties. Also, the effects of Fe3O4 and PANI on the properties of CS-Gel scaffolds were investigated. The composite scaffold was highly porous with the pore size of 100-300 μm. The results showed that the mechanical properties were increased by the Fe3O4-PANI loading, while the porosity, swelling ratio and in vitro biodegradability were decreased. This work supports the use of a magnetoconductive scaffold with a low amount of Fe3O4-PANI, 0.35 wt. %, as a suitable material having proper properties that may be appropriate for scaffold in tissue engineering for neural repair.