Resumen de Modified polymers as electroactive biomaterials
Brenda Guadalupe Molina García
Development of polymeric biomaterials with tailored properties is essential for expanding biotechnologies and, therefore, proposing novel solutions for diagnostic and treatments in modern medicine. In order to contribute with such expansion, this research suggests different strategies to modify intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) and overcome their few limitations. Three main engineering approaches were used to combine ICPs advantages with others from conventional insulating polymers and biopolymers, optimizing their performance as electrochemical biomaterials on tissues engineering, biomimetic platforms, actuators and specially on the biosensing field.
The first strategy evaluated in this Thesis was designed to take advantage of the “grafting-through”technique and prepare graft copolymers with ICPs backbones. The incorporation of well-known biocompatible polymers like polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polycaprolactone (PCL) into ICP backbones, increased the cell viability in presence of the synthetized copolymers. Such modifications and the ICPs electroactivity allowed to estimate the copolymers performance as electrochemical sensors of biomolecules.
The second approach was planned to prepare free-standing, flexible and electroactive films for the electrochemical detection of bacterial infections. The excellent mechanical properties of isotactic polypropylene (i-PP) plastic, combined with an ICP like poly (3,4-ethylendioxythiophene) (PEDOT), enabled the obtained a novel composite with good dimensional stability to be applied as electrochemical platform for bacterial detection. This composite was able to perceive extracellular nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), generated from the respiration reactions of bacteria, and distinguishing prokaryotic microbes from eukaryotic cells. In addition, with a small adjustment, the generated films exhibited qualities as electroactive bioplatforms for tissue engineering.
Finally, the third strategy fashioned an electroactive multi-functional nanomembrane for applications of flexible biomedical implants. A layer-by-layer assembly (LbL) was used to integrate the PEDOT electroactivity to the poly(lactic acid) (PLA) biopolymer. The self-supported nanomembrane of 5 layers, showed benefits as biomimetic platforms for selective ion and ATP transport, as well as actuator/artificial muscles.
Overall, the characterization studies of the electroactive and biocompatible composites presented in this Thesis, offer a comprehensive view on how modifications in ICPs optimize its abilities as biomaterials and open a wide range of possible applications in biomedicine.
