Susanna Bosi, Blanca Arnaiz, Luca Porcarelli, Antonio Dominguez-Alfaro, Jose M. González-Domínguez, Nuria Alegret, Unai Cossío, Maurizio Prato, David Mecerreyes, Ana Martín-Pacheco, Ester Vázquez, Dominguez-Alfaro, A., Alegret, N., Arnaiz, B., Gonzalez-Dominguez, J. M., Martin-Pacheco, A., Cossio, U., Porcarelli, L., Bosi, S., Vazquez, E., Mecerreyes, D., Prato, M., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Università degli studi di Trieste, Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa, European Commission, AXA Research Fund, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Domínguez Alfaro, Antonio [0000-0002-3215-9732], Alegret, Nuria [0000-0002-8329-4459], Arnaiz, Blanca [0000-0001-5789-0321, González Domínguez, José Miguel [0000-0002-0701-7695], Martín Pacheco, Ana [0000-0002-8342-7258], Cossío, Unai [0000-0002-3248-8683], Porcarelli, Luca [0000-0002-1624-382X], Bosi, Susanna [0000-0001-7863-9144], Vázquez, Ester [0000-0003-3223-8024], Mecerreyes, David [0000-0002-0788-7156], Prato, Maurizio [0000-0002-8869-8612], Domínguez Alfaro, Antonio, Alegret, Nuria, Arnaiz, Blanca, González Domínguez, José Miguel, Martín Pacheco, Ana, Cossío, Unai, Porcarelli, Luca, Bosi, Susanna, Vázquez, Ester, Mecerreyes, David, and Prato, Maurizio
8 figures.-- Supporting information available on the editor's web page.-- This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.9b01316, Three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds with tailored stiffness, porosity, and conductive properties are particularly important in tissue engineering for electroactive cell attachment, proliferation, and vascularization. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) have been extensively used separately as neural interfaces showing excellent results. Herein, we combine both the materials and manufacture 3D structures composed exclusively of PEDOT and CNTs using a methodology based on vapor phase polymerization of PEDOT onto a CNT/sucrose template. Such a strategy presents versatility to produce porous scaffolds, after leaching out the sucrose grains, with different ratios of polymer/CNTs, and controllable and tunable electrical and mechanical properties. The resulting 3D structures show Young’s modulus typical of soft materials (20–50 kPa), as well as high electrical conductivity, which may play an important role in electroactive cell growth. The conductive PEDOT/CNT porous scaffolds present high biocompatibility after 3 and 6 days of C8-D1A astrocyte incubation., The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO (project CTQ2016-76721-R), the University of Trieste, Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa program Red (101/16), and the European Commission (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016, grant agreement no. 734381, acronym CARBO-IMmap) and ELKARTEK bmG2017 (Ref: Elkartek KK-2017/00008, BOPV resolution: 8 Feb 2018) are gratefully acknowledged for financial support. MP, as the recipient of the AXA Chair, is grateful to the AXA Research Fund for financial support. This work was performed under the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program from the Spanish State Research Agency—grant no. MDM-2017-0720. NA has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 753293, acronym NanoBEAT.