Developing electroconductive microcarriers for cell manufacturing
| dc.contributor.author | Saket Balgouri, Aynaz | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Akbari, Mohsen | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-07-22T20:50:20Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-07-22T20:50:20Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Mechanical Engineering | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Applied Science MASc | |
| dc.description.abstract | The development of electroconductive biomaterials is critical for engineering functional tissues, particularly those composed of electrically excitable cells such as skeletal muscle, cardiac, and neural tissues. Traditional hydrogels often lack electrical conductivity, limiting their ability to support key physiological processes such as cell proliferation, alignment, and differentiation. This thesis presents the design, fabrication, and biological evaluation of novel electroconductive microcarriers based on gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA), integrated with either choline-based bio-ionic liquids (BILs) or poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), providing ionic and electronic conductivity, respectively. Microfluidic flow focusing was employed to fabricate monodisperse microcarriers with controlled size and tunable composition. Material characterization demonstrated that increasing the concentration of either BIL or PEDOT:PSS significantly enhanced the electrical conductivity of the hydrogels. Specifically, conductivity measurements showed a maximum of 0.663 S/m for GelMA hydrogels containing 5% BIL (GB-7-5), and 0.90 S/m at 1 mA and 3.63 S/m at 10 mA for hydrogels containing 2% PEDOT:PSS (GP-7-2), confirming improved conductive performance with higher additive content. Biological assays using C2C12 murine myoblasts demonstrated that both conductive microcarrier types promoted significantly better cell adhesion and proliferation compared to non-conductive controls. Live/dead, trypan blue/PrestoBlue staining confirmed high viability (>85%) across all formulations. Immunofluorescence imaging revealed elongated nuclei in conductive groups, especially in high-conductivity formulations. Flow cytometry further showed enhanced Myosin Heavy Chain (MyHC) expression, indicating improved myogenic differentiation, with up to a 1.5-fold increase observed in conductive groups. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that combining ionic and electronic conductive strategies with GelMA-based microcarriers offers a flexible, biocompatible, and functional platform for engineering electro-responsive tissues. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of monodisperse electroconductive microcarriers fabricated from GelMA based conductive microgels- using both an ionic (GelMA BIL) and an electronic (GelMA PEDOT:PSS) strategy- produced via microfluidic flow focusing. Beyond materials development, we systematically demonstrated that these microcarriers are biocompatible, support robust C2C12 adhesion and viability, and, crucially, accelerate myogenic maturation as evidenced by elongated nuclei and a ~1.5 fold rise in MyHC positive cells. Taken together, the study establishes a scalable, dual mode platform that bridges microcarrier bioprocessing with the electrical cues required for muscle tissue engineering . The results lay the groundwork for future integration with dynamic electrical stimulation systems and suggest broad potential for applications in muscle regeneration, bioelectronic medicine, and cell manufacturing platforms. | |
| dc.description.embargo | 2026-06-27 | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22488 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | |
| dc.subject | Electroconductive biomaterials | |
| dc.subject | Gelatin Methacryloyl (GelMA) | |
| dc.subject | PEDOT:PSS | |
| dc.subject | Bio-ionic liquid | |
| dc.subject | Tissue engineering | |
| dc.subject | Microcarriers | |
| dc.subject | Myogenic differentiation | |
| dc.subject | Regenerative medicine | |
| dc.title | Developing electroconductive microcarriers for cell manufacturing | |
| dc.type | Thesis |