title: Polypyrrole-incorporated conductive hyaluronic acid hydrogels.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hydrogels that possess hydrophilic and soft characteristics have been widely used in various biomedical applications, such as tissue engineering scaffolds and drug delivery. Conventional hydrogels are not electrically conductive and thus their electrical communication with biological systems is limited.
  
  
  METHODS
  To create electrically conductive hydrogels, we fabricated composite hydrogels of hyaluronic acid and polypyrrole. In particular, we synthesized and used pyrrole-hyaluronic acid-conjugates and further chemically polymerized polypyrrole with the conjugates for the production of conductive hydrogels that can display suitable mechanical and structural properties.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Various characterization methods, using a rheometer, a scanning electron microscope, and an electrochemical analyzer, revealed that the PPy/HA hydrogels were soft and conductive with ~ 3 kPa Young's modulus and ~ 7.3 mS/cm conductivity. Our preliminary in vitro culture studies showed that fibroblasts were well attached and grew on the conductive hydrogels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These new conductive hydrogels will be greatly beneficial in fields of biomaterials in which electrical properties are important such as tissue engineering scaffolds and prosthetic devices.
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Engineering (GIST), Gwangju, 500-712 Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jongcheol
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Engineering (GIST), Gwangju, 500-712 Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Goeun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Choe
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Engineering (GIST), Gwangju, 500-712 Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sumi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Engineering (GIST), Gwangju, 500-712 Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyerim
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jo
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Engineering (GIST), Gwangju, 500-712 Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
keywords: Biomaterials; Conductive; Hyaluronic Acid; Hydrogel; Polypyrrole