Electro-responsive polymer-based platforms for electrostimulation of cells

Abstract

Tissue engineering is a fascinating branch of science that aims to develop strategies to respond to tissue/organ damage with the slightest biological rejection. It is currently known that electric cues can trigger several cell metabolic responses such as differentiation, proliferation, growth, attachment, alignment, and apoptosis. Electro-responsive polymer-based materials are considered one of the most appropriate classes of materials for developing advanced conducting systems that can fulfill this purpose. These materials act as conducting platforms that can properly transmit electrical signals to cells and work as a physical environment to ensure cell nutrition and development. The motivation of this review is to summarize the recent work in terms of polymer-based conducting scaffolds for electro-assisted cell culture. An overview of the most commonly studied polymers and scaffold design methodologies is presented. Moreover, the mechanisms behind the effect of electric cues on cell fate are briefly described. Finally, the conclusions and future perspectives regarding conducting polymer-based scaffolds for tissue engineering are also given.