Fabrication and Preliminary Evaluation of Porous Electroactive Polyvinyl Alcohol/Sodium Alginate-Based Nanocomposite Scaffolds for Cardiac Tissue Engineering

Fabrication and Preliminary Evaluation of Porous Electroactive Polyvinyl Alcohol/Sodium Alginate-Based Nanocomposite Scaffolds for Cardiac Tissue Engineering | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Fabrication and Preliminary Evaluation of Porous Electroactive Polyvinyl Alcohol/Sodium Alginate-Based Nanocomposite Scaffolds for Cardiac Tissue Engineering Asmaa A. Ali, Tarek Fahmy, Afaf Sarhan, Ibrahim M. El-Sherbiny This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7554607/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The development of electroactive cardiac scaffolds became an imperative driven by the substantial clinical need and the minimal regeneration tendency of cardiomyocytes after myocardial infarction. A new series of 3D scaffolds has been developed and investigated for cardiac tissue engineering applications. The scaffolds are based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-sodium alginate (AL) nanocomposite foams (NCFs) reinforced with different electrically conductive nanofillers, including silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), polyaniline nanofibers (PANI-NFs), copper oxide nanoleaves (CuO-NLs) and graphene oxide nanosheets (GO-NSs), and have been fabricated utilizing gas foaming and lyophilization techniques. The influence of including different nanofillers on the microstructure, porosity, mechanical and electrical characteristics of the foamed scaffolds was scrutinized. Some significant parameters of the scaffolds were evaluated, including swelling degree, antioxidant efficiency as well as blood compatibility. The nanocomposite foams' microstructure, cellular morphology, and mechanical properties showed obvious dependence on the included nanofillers. DC conductivity measurements manifested a reduction in conductivity of the reinforced NCFs compared with the blend foam, except for NCF reinforced with GO-NSs. According to the obtained findings, all the fabricated nanocomposite foams proved their preliminary suitability as potential candidates for successful application in cardiac tissue engineering, particularly NCF reinforced with PANI-NFs and GO-NSs. Physical sciences/Engineering Physical sciences/Materials science Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology 3D conductive scaffolds gas foaming Nanocomposite foams conductive nanofillers porous cardiac scaffolds Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMaterials462025.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7554607","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":523582887,"identity":"962a39f0-6965-40c0-9261-537e6afb94a3","order_by":0,"name":"Asmaa A. 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Engineering\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"3D conductive scaffolds, gas foaming, Nanocomposite foams, conductive nanofillers, porous cardiac scaffolds","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7554607/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7554607/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe development of electroactive cardiac scaffolds became an imperative driven by the substantial clinical need and the minimal regeneration tendency of cardiomyocytes after myocardial infarction. A new series of 3D scaffolds has been developed and investigated for cardiac tissue engineering applications. The scaffolds are based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-sodium alginate (AL) nanocomposite foams (NCFs) reinforced with different electrically conductive nanofillers, including silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs), polyaniline nanofibers (PANI-NFs), copper oxide nanoleaves (CuO-NLs) and graphene oxide nanosheets (GO-NSs), and have been fabricated utilizing gas foaming and lyophilization techniques. The influence of including different nanofillers on the microstructure, porosity, mechanical and electrical characteristics of the foamed scaffolds was scrutinized. Some significant parameters of the scaffolds were evaluated, including swelling degree, antioxidant efficiency as well as blood compatibility. The nanocomposite foams' microstructure, cellular morphology, and mechanical properties showed obvious dependence on the included nanofillers. DC conductivity measurements manifested a reduction in conductivity of the reinforced NCFs compared with the blend foam, except for NCF reinforced with GO-NSs. According to the obtained findings, all the fabricated nanocomposite foams proved their preliminary suitability as potential candidates for successful application in cardiac tissue engineering, particularly NCF reinforced with PANI-NFs and GO-NSs.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Fabrication and Preliminary Evaluation of Porous Electroactive Polyvinyl Alcohol/Sodium Alginate-Based Nanocomposite Scaffolds for Cardiac Tissue Engineering","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-03 12:18:22","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7554607/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"29fae2ee-0d1d-47e9-b676-dae2840cc1b6","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 3rd, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":55723804,"name":"Physical sciences/Engineering"},{"id":55723805,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science"},{"id":55723806,"name":"Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-01-22T15:11:08+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-03 12:18:22","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7554607","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7554607","identity":"rs-7554607","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}