P3HT-Based Polymer Films as a Versatile Platform for Cell Interface in Biomedical Applications

Conductive polymers have emerged in recent years as promising materials in the field of bioelectronics and tissue engineering due to their interesting mixed ionic-electronic conductivity, biocompatibility, and tunable physico-chemical properties. Among these, poly(3-hexylthiofene) (P3HT), exhibits its capability to provide a native extracellular matrix like environment, able to interface with cells for various biomedical applications. In this work we present different studies based on this conductive polymer, showing that the electrical conductivity of P3HT, increases with the formation of blend using carbon nanotubes as conductive fillers. This new smart interface can integrate with biological systems, facilitating efficient signal transduction between devices and cells, making it an ideal candidate for bioelectronic interfaces. In our works we focus the attention on the characterization of morphological, nanomechanical and physico-chemical properties of the material and we have investigated the application of P3HT-based electrodes for neural interfaces, in particular the cell-electrode coupling, and the related cleft between them for further integration in devices for stimulation or recording of cellular electrical activity. Moreover, we evaluated the biological response, in terms of osteoconductivity and osteoinductivity, of human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells cultured on P3HT thin polymer. The results suggested that P3HT represents a good substrate to induce osteogenic differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells, even in absence of specific inductive growth factors, thus representing a promising strategy for bone regenerative medicine. Therefore, the development of new biomaterials able to promote the repair of native bone tissue by overcoming the limitations of conventional graft represents the main challenge in the field of regenerative medicine.