Background & Objective: Cardiac tissue engineering is a promising approach for treating cardiac diseases. Since electro-conductivity is an important parameter for cardiac function, here we attempted to produce a conductive scaffold by combining Polypyrrole (as a conductive polymer) and Cardiogel (decellularized heart-derived hydrogel).
Materials & Methods: The fresh sheep heart was purchased from a slaughterhouse and decellularized using SDS. Then it was digested using pepsin and cardiogel (CG) was prepared. The specific percentages of polypyrrole combined with CG and combined hydrogel were prepared. Then, the combined hydrogel was freeze-dried and the electro-conductive scaffold a CG-Ppy was prepared. Then, cardiac cells were cultured on CG-Ppy scaffold and their viability was assessed using MTS and Live/Dead staining.
Results: Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), Alcian Blue and Masson's trichrome staining and examination of collagen and DNA showed that all heart cells were removed through decellularization, and only heart extracellular matrix was preserved. Evaluation of the gelation process showed that the combination of CG with 2.5% Ppy was the most suitable combination for the production of CG-Ppy combined hydrogel. MTS and Live/Dead staining showed that CG-Ppy scaffold didn’t have any toxicity for cardiac cells, and more than 90% of cultured cardiac cells were viable after one week.
Conclusion: The electro-conductive combined scaffold CG-Ppy is an appropriate model for cardiac tissue engineering and it supports cardiac cells viability.