Some biocompatibility aspects of conducting polymer polypyrrole evaluated with bone marrow-derived stem cells

Biocompatible substrates, that support cell adhesion and proliferation, play an important role in cell research. The aim of this study was to prepare polypyrrole substrates and assess their impact on stem cells. The conducting polymer polypyrrole was deposited on the 50 nm gold-underlayer plated glass slide. These polypyrrole-modified surfaces were characterized using brigthfield microscopy, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Bone marrow-derived stem cells were used to evaluate the efficacy of the polypyrrole-modified gold surfaces to maintain cell adhesion and proliferation. The obtained results showed that polypyrrole-modified substrates were suitable for the attachment and proliferation of mouse stem cells. These cells adhered well on polypyrrole-modified surfaces and exposed normal fibroblastic like morphology. The proliferation rate on polypyrrole-modified surfaces was similar to that on the control samples based on (i) bare polystyrene and (ii) bare gold surface. Our results showed that the easily prepared polypyrrole-modified surfaces could be used for biomedical purposes where the adhesion and proliferation of stem cells is required. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.