Oral Presentation

¹Rouhollah Mehdinavaz Aghdam ; ¹alireza jenabi; ²Seyed Ali Seyed Ebrahimi

¹School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, P.O. Box: 11155-4563, Tehran, Iran

²Advanced Magnetic Materials Research Center, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Designing a suitable scaffold to enhance cell survival and growth is the first step in fabricating an engineered tissue. In this study, we used a blend of poly (vinyl alcohol) and sodium alginate (PVA/SA), containing various amounts of PEDOT, a conductive Polymer, to fabricate aligned electrospun nanofibers for cardiac tissue engineering applications. 4 different concentrations of PEDOT were used and electrospinning process was performed in high rotational speed of 1850 rpm in order to manufacture an aligned structure. The morphology of scaffolds was investigated using a Field emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM). Furthermore, chemical composition and present functional groups in the electrospun scaffolds were investigated using Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). In addition, wettability of the scaffolds was studied using water contact angle measurement. Our results have shown that increasing the PEDOT content results in distortion of the aligned structure of electrospun nanofibers and a minor reduction in nanofibers’ diameter, which is due to higher conductivity of the electrospun solutions. In addition, FTIR results confirmed chemical composition and structure of the aforementioned materials in the electrospun samples. Additionally, water contact angle measurements showed higher hydrophilicity in samples containing higher amounts of PEDOT.

PVA; Alginate; PEDOT; Electrospinning; Nanofibers