Stretchable degradable and electroactive shape memory copolymers with tunable recovery temperature enhance myogenic differentiation.

Development of flexible degradable electroactive shape memory polymers (ESMPs) with tunable switching temperature (around body temperature) for tissue engineering is still a challenge. Here we designed and synthesized a series of shape memory copolymers with electroactivity, super stretchability and tunable recovery temperature based on poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) with different molecular weight and conductive amino capped aniline trimer, and demonstrated their potential to enhance myogenic differentiation from C2C12 myoblast cells. We characterized the copolymers by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), cyclic voltammetry (CV), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), shape memory test, tensile test and in vitro enzymatic degradation study. The electroactive biodegradable shape memory copolymers showed great elasticity, tunable recovery temperature around 37°C, and good shape memory properties. Furthermore, proliferation and differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts were investigated on electroactive copolymers films, and they greatly enhanced the proliferation, myotube formation and related myogenic differentiation genes expression of C2C12 myoblasts compared to the pure PCL with molecular weight of 80,000. Our study suggests that these electroactive, highly stretchable, biodegradable shape memory polymers with tunable recovery temperature near the body temperature have great potential in skeletal muscle tissue engineering application. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Conducting polymers can regulate cell behavior such cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation with or without electrical stimulation. Therefore, they have great potential for electrical signal sensitive tissue regeneration. Although conducting biomaterials with degradability have been developed, highly stretchable and electroactive degradable copolymers for soft tissue engineering have been rarely reported. On the other hand, shape memory polymers (SMPs) have been widely used in biomedical fields. However, SMPs based on polyesters usually are biologically inert. This work reported the design of super stretchable electroactive degradable SMPs based on polycaprolactone and aniline trimer with tunable recovery temperature around body temperature. These flexible electroactive SMPs facilitated the proliferation and differentiation of C2C12 myoblast cells compared with polycaprolactone, indicating that they are excellent scaffolding biomaterials in tissue engineering to repair skeletal muscle and possibly other tissues.