Ayse Ekicioglu

Master student

Tailoring Electrically Conductive Hydrogels towards Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Supervisors: M.Sc. Lisa Schöbel, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Aldo R. Boccaccini
Since electrical fields play an imperative role in cell proliferation and differentiation, electrically active hydrogels represent favorable materials for tissue engineering approaches [1]. Previously, the combination of a synthetically doped conductive polymer, namely polypyrrole:polysytrene sulfonate (PPy:PSS), with an alginate-gelatin-based hydrogel has shown promising results [2]. In this research, the hydrogels will be further tailored by changing the dopant molecules in natural polymer based hydrogels. Furthermore, the crosslinking procedure of the hydrogels will be adapted to improve their properties for cartilage tissue  engineering. The resulting conductive hydrogels will be investigated with regard to their electrical conductivity, mechanical properties, 3D printability, swelling and degradation behavior and biocompatibility with cartilage cells.

[1] C. Chen, X. Bai, Y. Ding, and I. S. Lee, “Electrical stimulation as a novel tool for regulating cell behavior in tissue engineering,” Dec. 05, 2019, BioMed Central Ltd. doi: 10.1186/s40824-019-0176-8.

[2] Distler, T. et al. (2021). Electrically Conductive and 3D‐Printable Oxidized Alginate‐Gelatin Polypyrrole: PSS Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering. Advanced Healthcare Materials, 10(9), 2001876.