Electrical stimulation of somatic human stem cells mediated by composite containing conductive nanofibers for ligament regeneration Masumeh Dodel a , Nahid Hemmati Nejad a, * , S. Hajir Bahrami a , Masoud Soleimani b , Leila Mohammadi Amirabad c , Hana Hanaee-Ahvaz b , Amir Atashi d a Textile Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran b Stem Cell Technology Research Center, Tehran, Iran c School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran d Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering Research Center, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, Iran article info Article history: Received 14 January 2017 Received in revised form 27 January 2017 Accepted 29 January 2017 Available online xxx Keywords: Poly (3, 4-ethylene dioxythiophene) Electrospinning Conductive scaffold Stem cells Electrical stimulation Bioreactor abstract One of the advances in the field of biomedical nanotechnology, is conductive nanofiber fabrication and the discovery of its applications. Biocompatible flexible nanofibers that have a good biocompatibility, mechanical properties and morphology. Poly (3, 4-ethylene dioxythiophene) (PEDOT) is a conductive polymer that has recently been used in medical applications. In this study, the electrospinning technique and vapor phase polymerization combination method with freeze drying was used to produce Silk fibroin/PEDOT/Chitosan nanocomposite scaffold. The aim of our study was to develop a ligament construct of PEDOT/Silk bilayer nanofibrous scaffold, to mimic the aligned collagen fiber bundles and Chitosan sponge coating was done on these fibrous scaffolds, to mimic the glycosaminoglycans of ECM sheath. The developed constructs were characterized. The unrestricted somatic human stem cells (USSC), were cultured on the scaffold. Then, the effect of applying DC electric pulses to cells cultured on polymer was assessed. Cellular function was actively exhibited in scaffold with electrical induction, as evident by the high expression of collagen I, collagen III, decorin, biglycan and aggrecan genes. Novel scaffold plus electrical stimulation shows facilitating cell seeding and promoting cell proliferation, differentiation. This composites can be used in this new field for stem cells differentiation to target tissues. © 2017 International Alliance for Biological Standardization. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Ligament tears happens for people of different ages and its complete healing is a very challenging problem due to its hypo cellularity that decelerate regeneration of tissue injury. Surgery is required to repair the injured tissue due to the low intrinsic healing capacity and the limited vascularization [1]. To overcome the sur- gery problems of ligament repairs, the field of tissue engineering has attempted to mimic the ligament structure and function by using engineered scaffolds that optimizes the response of cellebiomaterial and mimic the native environment. However, no FDA approved tissue engineered ligament replacements produced yet [2e4]. Electrospinning techniques and hydrogels are useful to engineer the structure of ligament [1,5,6]. Electrospinning method has the ability to produce nanofibers that may mimic the natural extracellular matrix of tissues, and thus can support cell adhesion, proliferation, and extracellular matrix production [7e10]. Electro- spun fibers sheets are difficult to handle and use in clinical appli- cations so architectural modifications are in attempt to improve their handle ability. For example, fabricating different fiber ar- rangements or use of composite structures. Besides synthetic and natural polymers are popular candidates for electrospun scaffolds production. Many of them have been used for regenerative medi- cine research. Among these materials, silk fibroin (SF) is a prom- ising material. Many researches indicated that SF has considerable properties such as satisfactory strength, satisfactory biocompati- bility, optimal oxygen and moisture permeability [9,11e13]. Chito- san is also a favorable polymer for tissue engineering via its nontoxic, nonallergenic, mucoadhesive, biocompatible, * Corresponding author. P.O. Box: 15875-4413, Textile Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. E-mail address: hemmati@aut.ac.ir (N. Hemmati Nejad). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Biologicals journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biologicals http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biologicals.2017.01.007 1045-1056/© 2017 International Alliance for Biological Standardization. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Biologicals xxx (2017) 1e9 Please cite this article in press as: Dodel M, et al., Electrical stimulation of somatic human stem cells mediated by composite containing conductive nanofibers for ligament regeneration, Biologicals (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biologicals.2017.01.007