Sharif Digital Repository

Interface engineering of solar cell device is a prominent strategy to improve the device performance. Herein, we synthesize reduced-graphene scaffold (rGS) by using a new and simple chemical approach. In this regard, we synthesize a hollow structure of graphene and then fabricate a three-dimensional scaffold of graphene with a superior surface area using electrophoretic process. We employ this scaffold as an interface layer between the electron transfer and absorber layers in perovskite solar cell. The characterization tests and photovoltaic results show that rGS improves the carrier transportation, yielding a 27% improvement in device performance as compared to conventional device. Finally,... 

3D hydrogel environment with both unique properties of nanofibrous structure and electrical character can provide a promising scaffold for skeletal muscle tissue engineering approaches. Herein, the poly acrylic acid (PAA)-based hydrogel was engineered to conductive one by aniline polymerization in the form of nanofibers. The poly aniline (PANi) nanofibers were made by the optimized chemical reactions between the surface carboxylate groups of based hydrogel and protonated aniline monomers. We found that the strong bonding which was created between PANi and camphor sulphonic acid (CSA) as a doping agent supporting the stable electrical property of composite hydrogel after incubation in cell... 

A combination of topographical cues and controlled release of biochemical factors is a potential platform in controlling stem cells differentiation. In this study the synergistic effect of nanotopography and sustained release of biofunctional transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) on differentiation of human Wharton's Jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cell (hWJ-derived UC-MSCs) toward myogenic lineage was investigated. In order to achieve a sustained release of TGF-β1, this factor was encapsulated within chitosan nanoparticles. Afterwards the aligned composite mats were fabricated using poly-E-caprolacton (PCL) containing TGF-β1-loaded chitosan nanoparticles and poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA).... 

Among polymers, polyaniline (PANi) has been introduced as a good candidate for muscle regeneration due to high conductivity and also biocompatibility. Herein, for the first time, we report the use of electrospun nanofibrous membrane of PAN-PANi as efficient scaffold for muscle regeneration. The prepared PAN-PANi electrospun nanofibrous membrane was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Attenuated total reflectance fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and tensile examination. The softer scaffolds of non-composite electrospun nanofibrous PAN govern a higher rate of cell growth in spite of lower differentiation value. On the other hand, PAN-PANi electrospun... 

Porous scaffolds composed of gelatin/poly (vinyl alcohol), (Gel/PVA), were prepared using combination of freeze gelation and freeze drying methods. The effect of polymer concentration, gelatin/PVA ratio, and glutaraldehyde/gelatin ratio (GA/Gel) was investigated on morphology of pores, swelling ratio, biodegradation, and skin cell culture. At optimum preparation conditions the scaffolds had uniform pore size distributions showing high swelling ratio of 23.6. The scaffolds were of biodegradable nature and almost degraded in 28 days. Human dermal fibroblast cells (HDF) were cultured on the scaffolds and MTS assay was conducted to evaluate the influence of PVA on growth and proliferation of the... 

Modern techniques for expanding stem cells play a substantial role in tissue engineering: the raw material that facilitates regeneration of damaged tissues and treats diseases. The environmental conditions and bioprocessing methods are the primary determinants of the rate of cultured stem cell proliferation. Bioceramic scaffolds made of calcium phosphate are effective substrates for optimal cell proliferation. The present study investigates the effects of two bioceramic scaffolds on proliferating cells in culture media. One scaffold was made of hydroxyapatite and the other was a mixture of hydroxyapatite and ferromagnetic material (Fe3O4 nanoparticles). Disk-shaped (10 mm × 2 mm) samples of... 

Electrospinning of composite polymer solutions provides fantastic potential to prepare novel nanofibers for use in a variety of applications. The addition of graphene (G) and graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets to bioactive polymers was found to enhance their conductivity and biocompatibility. Composite conductive nanofibers of polyaniline (PANI) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) with G and GO nanosheets were prepared by an electrospinning process. The fabricated membranes were investigated by physical and chemical examinations including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD) and tensile assay. The muscle satellite cells enriched by a pre-plating technique were... 

This study proposes a mathematical model to evaluate the impact of oxygen carriers and scaffold geometry on oxygen distribution and cell growth in a 3D cardiac construct using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Flow equations, oxygen balance equation and cell balance equation were solved using special initial and boundary conditions. The modeling results revealed that 55% increase in cardiac cell density occurred by using 6.4% perfluorocarbon oxygen carrier (PFC) compared to pure culture medium without PFC supplementation. Moreover, the effects of the scaffold geometry on cell density were examined by changing the channel numbers and the construct length. A 30% increase in the average cells... 

This paper reports the fabrication of electrospun polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes/scaffolds that are suitable for three-dimensional (3D) cell culture. Through modification the ratio between PDMS and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as carrier polymer, we report the possibility of increasing PDMS weight ratio of up to 6 for electrospinning. Increasing the PDMS content increases the fiber diameter, the pore size, and the hydrophobicity. To our best knowledge, this is the first report describing beads-free, durable and portable electrospun membrane with maximum content of PDMS suitable for cell culture applications. To show the proof-of-concept, we successfully cultured epithelial lung... 

For a successful repair and reconstruction of bladder tissue, fabrication of scaffolds with proper biochemical and biomechanical characteristics is necessary. Decellularized bladder tissue has been proposed in previous studies as a gold standard material for scaffold fabrication. However, weak mechanical properties of such a load-bearing tissue has remained a challenge. Incorporation of both biological and synthetic materials has been known as an effective strategy for improving mechanical and biological properties of the scaffolds. In the present work, a simple process was developed to fabricate hybrid hydrogel scaffolds with a biomimetic architecture from the natural urinary bladder... 

Thermosensitive Chitosan hydrogels which can be injected into defects with minimally invasive approach were prepared. Also starch micro/nano particles were synthesized via water-in-oil (W/O) miniemulsion technique. The starch particles were incorporated into the chitosan hydrogel to prepare injectable thermosensitive hydrogel composites. Tube inverting method, compression tests, swelling studies, XRD, SEM, OM, DLS, UV–vis spectroscopy were used for investigations. Results revealed that increasing crosslinker and surfactant contents and stirring rate leads to particle size reduction. Particle size was modeled using design of experiments (DOE) via the response surface method (RSM). Due to... 

Natural silk fibroin (SF) polymer has biomedical and mechanical properties as a biomaterial for bone tissue engineering scaffolds. Freeze-dried porous nanocomposite scaffolds were prepared from silk fibroin and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles as a bioactive reinforcing agent by a phase separation method. In order to fabricate SF/TiO2 scaffolds, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt% of the TiO2 were added to the SF. The phase structure, functional groups and morphology of the scaffolds were evaluated using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy techniques, respectively. Porosity of the scaffolds was measured by Archimedes' Principle. In addition,... 

Porous scaffolds composed of gelatin/poly (vinyl alcohol), (Gel/PVA), were prepared using combination of freeze gelation and freeze drying methods. The effect of polymer concentration, gelatin/PVA ratio, and glutaraldehyde/gelatin ratio (GA/Gel) was investigated on morphology of pores, swelling ratio, biodegradation, and skin cell culture. At optimum preparation conditions the scaffolds had uniform pore size distributions showing high swelling ratio of 23.6. The scaffolds were of biodegradable nature and almost degraded in 28 days. Human dermal fibroblast cells (HDF) were cultured on the scaffolds and MTS assay was conducted to evaluate the influence of PVA on growth and proliferation of the... 

Electrospray ionization is a wide spread technique for producing polymeric microcarriers (MCs) by applying electrostatic force and ionic cross-linker, simultaneously. In this study, fabrication process of gelatin-chitosan MCs and its optimization using the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is reported. Gelatin/chitosan (G/C) blend ratio, applied voltage and feeding flow rate, their individual and interaction effects on the diameter and mechanical strength of the MCs were investigated. The obtained models for diameter and mechanical strength of MCs have a quadratic relationship with G/C blend ratio, applied voltage and feeding flow rate. Using the desirability curve, optimized G/C blend... 

Employing of the composite electrospun scaffold containing herbal extract in conjugation with co-culturing of cells can open up new window to the design of efficient biomaterials for skin tissue regeneration. Here, we introduce the synergistic effect of composite electrospun nanofibrous scaffold of nylon66 loaded with Beta vulgaris (B. vulgaris) (extract of beet roots, a plants whose widely used in Iranian folk medicine as wound healing medicine) and co-culture of mesenchymal stem-cells (MSCs)-human keratinocyte (H-keratino) differentiation towards epithelial lineage. In vitro biocompatibility was examined through MTT assay and epithelial differentiation checked by real-time PCR and... 

Biocompatible porous polymeric scaffolds provide a suitable environment for proliferation of stem cells in human body. In this research work, porous gelatin–poly(ethylene glycol), PEG, based scaffolds were prepared using combination of freeze-gelation and freeze-extraction methods. Effects of various parameters such as freezing temperature, cross-linking agent, concentrations of gelatin and PEG and their blending ratio on physical and mechanical properties, swelling ratio, porosity, pore size, and degradation rate of scaffolds were investigated. Also, proliferation of fibroblast skin cells on the scaffolds was examined by MTS assay to assess the suitability of the scaffolds in wound healing... 

The fabrication of a suitable scaffold material is one of the major challenges for bone tissue engineering. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is one of the most favorable matrix materials in bone tissue engineering owing to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. However, PLA suffers from some shortcomings including low degradation rate, low cell adhesion caused by its hydrophobic property, and inflammatory reactions in vivo due to its degradation product, lactic acid. Therefore, the incorporation of bioactive reinforcements is considered as a powerful method to improve the properties of PLA. This review presents a comprehensive study on recent advances in the synthesis of PLA-based biocomposites... 

In order to fabricate nanofiber scaffold for bone tissue engineering, electrospinning technique was employed. This technique produces nanofiberous scaffold supporting cell adhesion, migration, and proliferation. Here, we developed a novel conductive scaffold from poly-caprolactone, gelatin, and poly aniline/graphene nanoparticles. In this study, co-electrospinning was utilized to fabricate composite electrospun scaffold. The effect of polyaniline/graphene (PAG) nanoparticles on the mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of this hybrid scaffold was investigated. The result showed that PAG nanoparticles enbance both mechanical properties and electrical conductivity of the scaffolds.... 

It is known that Fluoride ions strongly affect bone mineralization and formation. In the present study, the engineered bone tissue scaffolds are fabricated using silk fibroin (SF) and flouridated TiO2 nanoparticles. TiO2 nanoparticles are modified by fluoride ions, and different levels (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt%) of the fluoridated TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2-F) were subsequently added to the SF matrix through phase separation method to prepare silk fibroin/flouridated TiO2 nanocomposite scaffolds (SF/TiO2-F). Phase structure, functional groups, morphology and mechanical properties of the obtained scaffolds were evaluated by X-ray diffraction method (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy... 

Thin porous membranes are important components in a microfluidic device, serving as separators, filters, and scaffolds for cell culture. However, the fabrication and the integration of these membranes possess many challenges, which restrict their widespread applications. This paper reports a facile technique to fabricate robust membrane-embedded microfluidic devices. We integrated an electrospun membrane into a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) device using the simple plasma-activated bonding technique. To increase the flexibility of the membrane and to address the leakage problem, the electrospun membrane was fabricated with the highest weight ratio of PDMS to polymethylmethacrylate (i.e., 6:1...