Conducting polymer thin films as substrates for cell cultures
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Conducting polymer thin films as substrates for cell cultures Marco Marzocchi1, Erika Scavetta2, Isabella Zironi1, Gastone Castellani1, Annalisa Bonfiglio3, George G. Malliaras4, Roisin M. Owens4 and Beatrice Fraboni1 1 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy 2 Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale, Università di Bologna, viale del Risorgimento 4, 40136 Bologna, Italy 3 Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica ed Elettronica, Università di Cagliari, Piazza d’Armi, 09123 Cagliari, Italy 4 Department of Bioelectronics, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines - CMP, 880 route de Mimet, F-13541 Gardanne, France ABSTRACT In biological applications, conjugated polymers offer many advantages compared to inorganic semiconductors, due to their favorable electrical properties and their biocompatibility. Many different parameters affect the cell-substrate interaction and in this work we focus our attention on the role played by the oxidation state and surface morphology of conducting polymer substrates. We realized cell culture substrates using a thin film of a biocompatible conducting polymer widely employed in organic electronics, poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS). The oxidation state of the samples was electrochemically modified through the application of a fixed potential, and they were subsequently characterized by atomic force microscopy and optical spectroscopy. Using these techniques we have been able to measure the oxidation state of the polymer films, and to asses that its surface roughness does not depend on its oxidation state. Furthermore, human dermal fibroblast (hDF) were grown on PEDOT:PSS films with different oxidation state, in order to test their efficacy as cell culture substrates and their biocompatibility. INTRODUCTION Starting from the 1990s, carbon-based semiconductors, namely conjugated molecules and polymers, attracted more and more attention both from academic and industrial environments as suitable materials for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) and organic photovoltaics (OPVs), mainly due to their mechanical flexibility and low processing cost. More recently, organic semiconductors have found new applications as materials capable of interfacing electronics and biological environment [1], thanks to many advantageous properties: mechanical compatibility with living tissues [2], the ability to conduct ions as well as electrons and holes [3,4], and the synthetic tunability of their chemical and electrical properties [5,6]. In 1994, Wong et al. [7] demonstrated that it is possible to noninvasively control living cell growth by changing the oxidation state of a conjugated polymer used as the substrate for cell culture. More recently, it has been shown that this effect is strictly related to a change in protein density and conformation which occurs when the oxidation state of the polymer used as substrate is changed [8,9]. The ability to enhance or prevent cell a
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