Analysis of electrical conductivity in polymeric scaffolds in frog sciatic nerve

SALAS SALAS; OLIVA EMILIA; ANA S. DUPORT BRU ; THEO RODRÍGUEZ CAMPOS; FABRICIO N. MOLINARI ; LEANDRO MONSALVE; ANDREA P. RODRIGUEZ

San Juan

Congreso; XXIII Congreso Argentino de Bioingeniería y XII Jornadas de Ingeniería Clínica; 2022

The term «spinal cord injury» refers to the damage to the spinal cord as a result of trauma. Currently, there is no treatment that demonstrates a significant recovery of neuronal function in patients. Neural tissue engineering is a promising alternative to treat these injuries. In this paper we propose to measure the conductivity of scaffolds formed by electrospun polymer membranes, using only polycaprolactone (PCL) as basis or functionalized with different polymers and conductive nanomaterials. Conductivity was measured by recording the electrical impulse that scaffolds can transmit through the frog´s sciatic nerve. Our results demonstrated that, among the different groups of membranes studied, there is a significant difference in the transmission of the electrical stimulus. In particular, membranes formed by PCL and carbon nanotubes (CNT) exhibited higher conductivity than the remaining groups. This work confirms the ability of scaffolds to transmit electrical signals through the frog sciatic nerve and provide the basis for projecting new studies in order to evaluate in depth the effect of this group of membranes on the cellular response and biocompatibility with the tissue.