Biomimetic Conductive Hydrogel Scaffolds with Anisotropy and Electrical Stimulation for In Vivo Skeletal Muscle Reconstruction

The nature of the hydrogel scaffold mimicking extracellular matrix plays a crucial role in tissue engineering like skeletal muscle repair. Herein, an anisotropic and conductive hydrogel scaffold is fabricated using gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) as the matrix hydrogel and silver nanowire (AgNW) as the conductive dopant, through a directional freezing technique for muscle defect repair. The scaffold has an anisotropic structure composed of a directional longitudinal section and a honeycomb cross-section, with high mechanical strength of 10.5 kPa and excellent conductivity of 0.26 S m