Nanofibrous Piezoelectric PVDF-Graphene Scaf-folds for Cardiac Tissue Engineering

Objective: Piezoelectric polymer-based nanocomposites with fibrous structure are emerging materials for cardiac tissue en-gineering due to their electroactive properties and the ability to mimic the fibrillary structure of the native cardiac microen-vironment.Materials and Methods: We present a novel hybrid poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-graphene nanocomposites with high piezoelectric response, tunable mechanical proper-ties, and improved cell adhesion and proliferation. To attain ho-mogeneous distribution of graphene nanosheets in the polymer matrix, reduced graphene (rGO) nanosheets are functionalized with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). Cardiac scaffolds are pre-pared by electrospinning to attain unwoven fibers with an aver-age diameter of ۲۴۰ nm and high structural porosity.Results: The effects of PEGlayted rGO nanosheets (up to ۷wt.%) on the electrical and biological properties of the nanofi-brous scaffolds are presented. The attachment and spreading of L۹۲۹ cells on the scaffolds are shown. The improved cell pro-liferation on the fibrous PVDF nanocomposite containing ۱% rGO is also demonstrated.Conclusion: The potential application of the developed scaf-folds for cardiac tissue engineering is presented and discussed.