Polybenzimidazole (PBI) has been widely studied for the construction of fuel cells and filtration membranes due to its ability to be doped with charged molecules, turning it into a conductive polymer. PBI has been electrospun and doped with several organic and inorganic acids to afford a conductive, neural-friendly scaffold. The fibers obtained were characterized with respect to morphology, hydrophilicity, conductivity and biocompactibility. Adhesion (day 2) and proliferation using L-929 fibroblasts (7 days) and ReN cells (4 days) provide an assessment of cell behavior towards this material. Cell viability studies relied on Alamar Blue assay and the specific growth rate was calculated. Both cells lines proliferated on the doped PBI scaffolds. After growth, ReN cells were submitted to a differentiation protocol (9 days) and the cells obtained were visualized and characterized by immunodetection of TujIII and GFAP. PBI doped fibers were able to support L-929 and ReN cells growth and promoted neural differentiation. This material holds promise for designing new electroconductive scaffolds capable of supporting neurons, for biomedical studies and for drug screening platforms.

Polybenzimidazole electrospun nanofibers for neural cell culture

254th National Meeting (2017)

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