Aligned Bioelectronic Polypyrrole/Collagen Constructs for Peripheral Nerve Interfacing

Electrical stimulation has shown promise in clinical studies to treat nerve injuries. This work is aimed to create an aligned bioelectronic construct that can be used to bridge a nerve gap, directly interfacing with the damaged nerve tissue to provide growth support. The conductive three‐dimensional bioelectronic scaffolds described herein are composite materials, comprised of conductive polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles embedded in an aligned collagen hydrogel. The bioelectronic constructs are seeded with dorsal root ganglion derived primary rat neurons and electrically stimulated in vitro. The PPy loaded constructs support a 1.7‐fold increase in neurite length in comparison to control collagen constructs. Furthermore, upon electrical stimulation of the PPy‐collagen construct, a 1.8‐fold increase in neurite length is shown. This work illustrates the potential of bioelectronic constructs in neural tissue engineering and lays the groundwork for the development of novel bioelectronic materials for neural interfacing applications. Bioelectronics combining both electrical stimulation and conductive materials has shown promise within regenerative medicine research. Within this experimental paper, a novel, aligned bioelectronic construct fabricated from a rapid manufacturing technique, gel aspiration ejection, is reported. Furthermore, an electrical stimulation platform is developed and used to assess the effect of electrical stimulation on neurite extension and alignment within the constructs.