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The design of conductive hydrogels integrating anti-fatigue, high sensitivity, strong mechanical property and good sterilization performance remains a challenge. We innovatively introduced metal coordination in covalently crosslinked Pluronic F-127 micelle network and synthesized nanocomposite conductive tough hydrogel through the combination of covalent crosslinking, metal coordination and silver nanowire reinforcement. Compared with pure diacylated PF127 hydrogel (PF127), the tensile strength of PF-AA-AM-Al

Volumetric muscle loss (VML) results in the impediment of skeletal muscle function, and there were still great challenges in cell delivery approach with the minimally invasive operation to repair muscle defects. To deliver cells to the VML defects site efficiently, the injectable conductive porous nanocomposite microcryogels based on gelatin (GT) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were designed and prepared. The microcryogels were loaded with myoblasts to form an injectable cell delivery system and show the ability to protect cells during injection. Conductive microcryogel with 4 mg/mL rGO (GT/rGO4) enhanced C2C12 cell proliferation and myogenic differentiation during 3D culture compared with pure gelatin microcryogel. In a mice VML model, injection of microcryogel loaded with muscle-derived stem cells into the injury site significantly improved the generation of new muscle fibers and blood vessels, and anti-inflammatory properties. The results show that injectable biodegradable conductive microcryogel can be used as muscle stem cell carriers with the potential to maintain cell activity and deliver cells to defective sites, thereby in situ enhancing skeletal muscle regeneration. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Volumetric muscle loss overwhelms the regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle, which results in severe damage to muscle tissues. In the treatment of volumetric muscle loss, conductive niche and muscle stem cells are needed to alleviate excessive scar formation and inflammation to improve muscle regeneration. Injectable gelatin/reduced graphene oxide based nanocomposite microcryogel can enhance the differentiation of seeded muscle stem cells. The improved repair of volumetric muscle loss was achieved via reducing collagen deposition and inflammation in the injected region through the microcryogel cell-delivery therapy, suggesting great potential of the injectable microcryogel as a cell carrier in soft tissue repair.

Dextran with good biocompatibility and degradability shows great potentials for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. Electro-responsive drug delivery system can provide on-demand and localized drug release. However, dextran-based conductive hydrogel with electrical stimuli responsiveness as drug delivery system has not been reported. Herein, we designed and fabricated a kind of biocompatible biodegradable conductive hydrogel system with the property of electro-responsiveness as a new smart drug delivery system for localized drug release. These series of hydrogels were synthesized by mixing dextran and electroactive aniline trimer with hexamethylene diisocyanate as crosslinker to form hydrogel network. These series of hydrogels exhibited stable rheological property and controllable swelling ratio. These hydrogels showed good conductivity and desirable electric stimuli ability to control drug release. Furthermore, this kind of hydrogel was controlled by external electrical stimuli to generate a kind of "on-off" precise drug release system. When extra voltage was applied, they released more drug intelligently and less drug molecule without external stimuli. The hydrogel showed good cytocompatibility and in vivo biocompatibility by using H&E staining and Toluidine blue staining. All together, these results indicated that these series of biocompatible conductive dextran-based hydrogels were promising candidates as smart drug delivery systems in future biomedical field.

Herbal medicines (HMs) usually consist of complex matrices of phytochemical compounds responsible for their efficacy. Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and ultra-high performance SFC (UHPSFC) are efficient techniques that can be advantageously used for the analysis of complex HMs. Here, the comprehensive UHPSFC methods were established for separation of similar flavonoids, chemical profiling and differentiation, and quality assessment of Epimedium species (EPs). An efficient separation of 12 polar flavonoids was enabled in UHPSFC with an important additive, oxalic acid. Then, 51 flavonoids were characterized, and 28 potential markers enabling the differentiation of E. wushanense from other four species were discovered by UHPSFC-QTOF/MS combined pattern recognition multivariate statistical analysis. Additionally, the UHPSFC-PDA was developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of 7 predominant flavonoids in five EPs, and remarkable variation in their contents was observed. This integrated UHPSFC approach has potential applications in systematic analysis and quality evaluation of HMs containing hydrophilic flavonoids.

Developing electroactive elastic scaffolds with micropatterned surface would be beneficial for cardiac therapy due to their capability of mimicking the anisotropy, electrical propagation, and mechanical property of native myocardium. In this study, we presented a series of micropatterned, electroactive, and degradable polymeric films with suitable mechanical property for cardiac tissue engineering. Specifically, we developed a kind of degradable bioelastomers based on poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) copolymerized with aniline trimer (AT) with micropatterned surface structure, electroactive property and modulus within the same order of magnitude of native heart tissue. All of these films with different AT contents (5 wt%, 10 wt%, and 15 wt%) showed a good cell viability and promoted the proliferation of rat cardiomyoblast-derived H9c2 cells. Especially, the electroactive film with the 10 wt% AT content was able to significantly enhance the cell-cell interaction, maturation and synchronous calcium transients of neonatal rat primary cardiomyocytes (CMs). Moreover, this electroactive elastomer was fabricated into micropatterned films, which showed the ability to guide CMs’ alignment and elongation along with the aligned groove/ridge micropatterned surface and promote the amount of available intercellular Ca2+. These data suggest that this highly tunable micropatterned, electroactive, and biodegradable elastomer demonstrated the promising potential as an excellent scaffolding biomaterial for cardiac tissue repair and regeneration.

Besides preventing wound infection, novel wound dressing materials are highly expected to exhibit the extraordinary wound repair and skin regeneration advantage. Herein, we designed a kind of multi-functional injectable hydrogel dressing, integrating the conductivity, desirable antioxidant ability and antibacterial property to meet increasing requirements of skin damage. By mixing the biocompatible polymer N-carboxyethyl chitosan (CEC) and oxidized hyaluronic acid-graft-aniline tetramer (OHA-AT) polymer under physiological conditions, the conductive anti-oxidant hydrogels OHA-AT/CEC were fabricated. The hydrogels exhibited stable rheological property, high swelling ratio, suitable gelation time, good in vitro biodegradation property, electroactive property and free radical scavenging capacity. With the antibiotic amoxicillin addition, the hydrogel showed good antibacterial property to effectively prevent the wound infection. In vivo experiments indicated that hydrogel with AT addition (OHA-AT/CEC hydrogels) significantly accelerated wound healing rate with higher granulation tissue thickness, collagen disposition and more angiogenesis in a full-thickness skin defect model. In one word, the present approach can shed new light on designing of electroactive injectable hydrogels with promising applications in wound dressing.

Mitochondria, as primary energy generators and Ca2+ biosensor, are dynamically coupled to neuronal activities, and thus play a role in neuroplasticity. Here we report that respiratory neuroplasticity induced by daily acute intermittent hypoxia (dAIH) evoked adaptive changes in the ultrastructure and postsynaptic distribution of mitochondria in the pre-Botzinger complex (pre-BotC). The metabolic marker of neuronal activity, cytochrome c oxidase (CO), and dendritic mitochondria were examined in pre-BotC neurons of adult Sprague-Dawley rats preconditioned with dAIH, which is known to induce long-term facilitation (LTF) in respiratory neural activities. We performed neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R) pre-embedding immunocytochemistry to define pre-BotC neurons, in combination with CO histochemistry, to depict ultrastructural alterations and CO activity in dendritic mitochondria. We found that the dAIH challenge significantly increased CO activity in pre-BotC neurons. Darkly CO-reactive mitochondria at postsynaptic sites in the dAIH group were much more prevalent than those in the normoxic control. In addition, the length and area of mitochondria were significantly increased in the dAIH group, implying a larger surface area of cristae for ATP generation. There was a fine, structural remodeling, notably enlarged and branching mitochondria or tapered mitochondria extending into dendritic spines. Mitochondrial cristae were mainly in parallel-lamellar arrangement, indicating a high efficiency of energy generation. Moreover, flocculent or filament-like elements were noted between the mitochondria and the postsynaptic membrane. These morphological evidences, together with increased CO activity, demonstrate that dendritic mitochondria in the pre-BotC responded dynamically to respiratory plasticity. Hence, plastic neuronal changes are closely coupled to active mitochondrial bioenergetics, leading to enhanced energy production and Ca2+ buffering that may drive the LTF expression.

Injectable hydrogels with multifunctional properties, including tissue adhesiveness and pH-sensitivity are highly desired for localized drug delivery in disease treatment, and their design is still challenging. We developed a series of multifunctional injectable mucoadhesive and pH-responsive hydrogels based on chitosan-grafted-dihydrocaffeic acid (CS-DA) and oxidized pullulan (OP) via a Schiff base reaction. These hydrogels exhibited good injectability, suitable gelation time, in vitro pH-dependent equilibrated swelling ratios, morphologies, and rheological characteristics. The desirable in vitro pH-sensitive drug release behavior of these hydrogels was demonstrated by a drug release test with anti-cancer drug doxorubicin (DOX) loaded hydrogels at different pH values. The hydrogels showed good DOX release, effectively killing colon tumor cells (HCT116 cells) and good antibacterial properties against E. coli and S. aureus in vitro when the antibacterial model drug amoxicillin was encapsulated in the hydrogels. A lap-shear test was also carried out with these hydrogels. The hydrogels exhibited good mucosal adhesion, indicating their potential use in mucosa-localized drug delivery systems. All these results suggest that these injectable pH-responsive adhesive hydrogels are ideal candidates for development of colon cancer drug delivery carriers or mucoadhesive drug delivery systems.

Injectable conductive hydrogels have great potential as tissue engineering scaffolds and delivery vehicles for electrical signal sensitive cell therapy. In this work, we present the synthesis of a series of injectable electroactive degradable hydrogels with rapid self-healing ability and their potential application as cell delivery vehicles for skeletal muscle regeneration. Self-healable conductive injectable hydrogels based on dextran-graft-aniline tetramer-graft-4-formylbenzoic acid and N-carboxyethyl chitosan were synthesized at physiological conditions. The dynamic Schiff base bonds between the formylbenzoic acid and amine group from N-carboxyethyl chitosan endowed the hydrogels with rapid self-healing ability, which was verified by rheological test. Equilibrated swelling ratio, morphology, mechanical strength, electrochemistry and conductivity of the injectable hydrogels were fully investigated. The self-healable conductive hydrogels showed an in vivo injectability and a linear-like degradation behavior. Two different kinds of cells (C2C12 myoblasts and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC)) were encapsulated in the hydrogels by self-healing effect. The L929 fibroblast cell culture results indicated the biocompatibility of the hydrogels. Moreover, the C2C12 myoblast cells were released from the conductive hydrogels with a linear-like profile. The in vivo skeletal muscle regeneration was also studied in a volumetric muscle loss injury model. All these data indicated that these biodegradable self-healing conductive hydrogels are potential candidates as cell delivery vehicles and scaffolds for skeletal muscle repair. Statement of Significance Injectable hydrogels with self-healing and electrical conductivity properties are excellent candidates as tissue-engineered scaffolds for myoblast cell therapy and skeletal muscle regeneration. The self-healing property of these hydrogels can prolong their lifespan. However, most of the reported conductive hydrogels are not degradable or do not have the self-healing ability. Herein, we synthesized antibacterial conductive self-healing hydrogels as a cell delivery carrier for cardiac cell therapy based on chitosan-grafted-tetraaniline hydrogels synthesized in our previous work. However, an acid solution was used to dissolve the polymers in that study, which may induce toxicity to cells. In this work, we synthesized a series of injectable electroactive biodegradable hydrogels with rapid self-healing ability composed of N-carboxyethyl chitosan (CECS) and dextran-graft-aniline oligomers, and these hydrogel precusor can dissolve in PBS solution of pH 7.4; we further demonstrated their potential application as cell delivery vehicles for skeletal muscle regeneration.

Developing an injectable anisotropic scaffold with precisely topographic cues to induce 3D cellular organization plays a critical role in volumetric muscle loss (VML) repair in vivo. However, controlling aligned myofiber regeneration in vivo based on previous injectable scaffolds continues to prove challenging, especially in a 3D configuration. Herein, we prepare the monodisperse remote magnetic controlled short nanofibers (MSNFs) with a high yield using an advanced coaxial electrospinning-cyrocutting method. An injectable anisotropic MSNF/Gel nanofiber/hydrogel scaffold based on MSNFs within photocurable hydrogel is further designed, showing the ability to guide 3D cellular alignment and organization by the precise microarchitecture control via a remote magnetic field. MSNF/Gel anisotropic scaffolds were able to recreate the macroscale and microscale topographical features of orbicular muscle and bipennate muscle mimicking their anatomical locations. Furthermore, the resultant MSNF/Gel anisotropic scaffolds significantly enhanced aligned myofiber formation in vivo and improved functional recovery of injured muscles in animal VML models. In summary, this approach offers a new promising tissue engineering strategy not only for the aligned myofiber formation for enhancing skeletal muscle regeneration in vivo but also for other biofabrication of living constructs containing complex anisotropy in vitro.

Designing wound dressing materials with outstanding therapeutic effects, self-healing, adhesiveness and suitable mechanical property has great practical significance in healthcare, especially for joints skin wound healing. Here, we designed a kind of self-healing injectable micelle/hydrogel composites with multi-functions as wound dressing for joint skin damage. By combining the dynamic Schiff base and copolymer micelle cross-linking in one system, a series of hydrogels were prepared by mixing quaternized chitosan (QCS) and benzaldehyde-terminated Pluronic®F127 (PF127-CHO) under physiological conditions. The inherent antibacterial property, pH-dependent biodegradation and release behavior were investigated to confirm multi-functions of wound dressing. The hydrogel dressings showed suitable stretchable and compressive property, comparable modulus with human skin, good adhesiveness and fast self-healing ability to bear deformation. The hydrogels exhibited efficient hemostatic performance and biocompatibility. Moreover, the curcumin loaded hydrogel showed good antioxidant ability and pH responsive release profiles. In vivo experiments indicated that curcumin loaded hydrogels significantly accelerated wound healing rate with higher granulation tissue thickness and collagen disposition and upregulated vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in a full-thickness skin defect model. Taken together, the antibacterial adhesive hydrogels with self-healing and good mechanical property offer significant promise as dressing materials for joints skin wound healing.

Porous cryogel with its poor mechanical properties greatly limit its application for lethal non-compressible bleeding from deep wounds. Here, we creatively combined foaming reaction and cryo-polymerization reaction to prepare a series of high-strength composite cryogel hemostatic agents based on Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), Carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) and Dopamine (DA) to cope with lethal noncompressible bleeding. The optimized PVA/CMCS-DA6 cryogel (1 mL prepolymer solution contains 6 mg DA) exhibited compression stress higher than 125 kPa at 80% compression strain and tensile stress-at-break higher than 155 kPa which are much higher than that of traditional cryogels. The hemostatic material with shape memory behavior and high compression strength can effectively stop lethal non-compressible bleeding, which has a good physical hemostatic effect, and the hemostat is easy to be removed after hemostasis. In addition, PVA/CMCS-DA6 cryogel showed better whole blood clotting ability, platelets and blood cells activation ability than commercial gelatin sponge and medical gauze, which has a good chemical hemostatic effect. PVA/CMCS-DA6 cryogel with synergistic chemical hemostasis and physical hemostasis showed outstanding hemostatic capacity in the rabbit liver defect non-compressible hemorrhage model and lethal coagulopathic rabbit liver defect bleeding model. Therefore, high-strength PVA/CMCS-DA cryogels have great potential as a new hemostatic agent for controlling lethal bleeding and providing a new idea for the design of efficient hemostatic materials.

Due to the frequent movement and stretching of skin, traditional wound dressings are difficult to adapt to motion wounds on the stretchable parts of the body surface (e.g. elbow, hip and knee). Moreover, chronic motion wounds are often accompanied by infections. To address these issues, a series of injectable adhesive self-healing photothermal dual dynamic Schiff base network hydrogels were developed based on adipic dihydrazide modified hyaluronic acid, benzaldehyde group functionalized poly(ethylene glycol)–co-poly(glycerol sebacate) and cuttlefish melanin nanoparticles, and their excellent tissue adhesion, stretchability and self-healing properties enable them to adapt to the frequent movement of motion wounds. Meanwhile, the hydrogels can prevent and treat motion wound infections through photothermal antibacterial therapy, and exhibit multifunctions (including anti-oxidation, hemostasis, exudate absorption and sustained release property) to promote wound healing. In in vivo normal and infected full-thickness skin defect motion wound models, the hydrogel dressings significantly prevented wound infections and promoted wound healing with milder inflammation, higher granulation tissue thickness and collagen disposition. Overall, the adhesive self-healing photothermal hydrogels can adapt to frequent movement of motion wounds, and can improve infection and promote healing in both normal and infected motion wounds, indicating their great potential in motion wound treatment in clinics.

Developing 3D conductive aligned cryogels has great potential for skeletal muscle trauma treatment because they can mimic anisotropic structure, conductivity, and recoverable cyclic compression of the microenvironment of native skeletal muscle. In this work, a series of cryogels possessing 3D aligned morphology, conductivity, and excellent anisotropic mechanical compression property based on gelatin (GT) and polydopamine coated carbon nanotubes (PCNTs) were fabricated as skeletal muscle tissue scaffolds by using unidirectional freeze casting technology. The aligned microstructure of cryogels depended on gelatin concentration, and GT7.5 (with the gelatin content of 7.5% w/v) showed excellent aligned structure. Interestingly, the mechanical property of the aligned cryogels was similar to that of native skeletal muscle in terms of the dynamic contraction behavior and the anisotropic compression property due to the internal anisotropy structure. The aligned cryogel GT7.5 with good biocompatibility significantly promoted the alignment and elongation of C2C12 myoblasts. Moreover, the introduction of PCNTs enhanced the mechanical properties of cryogel GT7.5 and had a positive effect on myogenic differentiation of C2C12 cells. The aligned conductive GT7.5C2 cryogel significantly promoted new born muscle tissue generation compared to non-aligned group (GT7.5C2N) and non-conductive group (GT7.5) in a rat tibialis anterior muscle defect model. These data suggested that the 3D aligned conductive cryogel with conductivity and anisotropic compression property is a promising scaffold candidate for skeletal muscle tissue engineering.

Stimuli responsive cryogels with multi-functionality have potential application for electrical devices, actuators, sensors and biomedical devices. However, conventional thermal sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) cryogels show slow temperature response speed and lack of multi-functionality, which greatly limit their practical application. Herein we present conductive fast (2 min for both deswelling and reswelling behavior) thermally responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) cryogels with rapid shape memory properties (3 s for shape recovery), near-infrared (NIR) light sensitivity and pressure dependent conductivity, and further demonstrated their applications as temperature sensitive on-off switch, NIR light sensitive on-off switch, water triggered shape memory on-off switch and pressure dependent device. These cryogels were first prepared in dimethyl sulfoxide below its melting temperature in ice bath and subsequently put into aniline or pyrrole solution to in situ deposition of conducting polyaniline or polypyrrole nanoparticles. The continuous macroporous sponge-like structure provides cryogels with rapid responsivity both in deswelling, reswelling kinetics and good elasticity. After incorporating electrically conductive polyaniline or polypyrrole nanoaggregates, the hybrid cryogels exhibit desirable conductivity, photothermal property, pressure dependent conductivity and good cytocompatibility. These multifunctional hybrid cryogels make them great potential as stimuli responsive electrical device, tissue engineering scaffolds, drug delivery vehicle and electronic skin.

Radix Dipsaci (RD), the dried root of Dipsacus asper, is used in traditional Chinese medicine as a remedy for bone fractures, traumatic hematoma, threatened abortion, and uterine bleeding. A novel ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole-time-of-flight tanderm mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS) approach was performed to rapidly characterize the chemical constituents of RD. Consequently, 21 compounds, including 12 iridoid glycosides (IGs), 4 furofuran lignans (FLs), and 5 phenolic acids (PAs) were discovered and identified from RD. Among these compounds, 3 IGs were previously unreported. Furthermore, a rapid and reliable UHPLC-DAD-based method was developed. The linearity (R2 > 0.999), repeatability (RSDs

Conducting polymers and biodegradable polylactide (PLA) scaffolds are both promising biomaterials applied in bone tissue engineering. It is necessary to develop a composite scaffold combining their properties of osteogenic differentiation promotion and three-dimension matrix. To conquer the problem of poor processability of conductive polymers, we use a novel in-situ polymerization/thermal induced phase separation (TIPS) method to fabricate conductive nanofibrous PLA scaffolds with well-distributed polyaniline (PANI) nano-structures. The simple preparation technique provides the possibility to scale-up production of these conductive nanofibrous composite scaffolds. The scaffold structure and content of in-situ formed polyaniline nanoparticles was thoroughly characterized with 1H NMR, FT-IR, XPS, TGA, SEM and UV-vis, and the conductivity/electrochemical properties of the composite scaffolds were controlled with varied feed ratios of aniline to PLA. Meanwhile, the good cytocompatibility of these composite scaffolds was evaluated by culturing bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on them. The effect of conductive nanofibrous scaffolds on osteogenic differentiation was studied with expression levels of alkaline phosphatase (Alp), osteocalcin (Ocn) and runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2) during the culture of BMSCs for three weeks. The calcium mineralization of BMSCs is determined by alizarin red staining. These results indicated that a moderate content of PANI in the conductive nanofibrous scaffolds significantly promoted osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs for engineering bone tissues.

Icariin (ICA), a major flavonoid responsible for the pharmacological actions of Herba Epimedii, was found to be increased significantly after the heating process. The increase of ICA was considered to be due to the transformation of other flavonoids, in particular, epimedin (EPI) A-C. This novel study demonstrated that the increase of ICA in Epimedium. koreanum was induced mainly through the conversion of 3'''-carbonyl-2''-β-l-quinovosyl icariin (CQICA) by deglycosylation during the heating process. Furthermore, the comparative analysis of the changes of CQICA and ICA in four raw Epimedium species (EPs) designated in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia revealed that the increase of ICA during the heating process was associated with the presence of CQICA in EPs. The present study provided scientific evidence for the conversion of CQICA into ICA, correcting the understanding of the transformation of EPI A-C into ICA. The results provided a reasonable scientific basis for the traditional use of processed Herba Epimedii, and might be helpful for the quality assessment of EPs.

Wound management is a big challenge worldwide, laying a huge financial burden on the government of every nation. Wound dressings that can facilitate wound healing have been under investigation for a long time. Conventional wound dressings, such as bandages, hydrogels and foams, help the wound healing not as efficiently as they were expected since they can’t respond to the wound healing process well. Smart wound dressings that can interact with the wounds, sense and react to the wound condition or environment changing by employing built-in sensors and/or smart materials such as stimuli-responsive materials and self-healing materials, have been proposed to effectively facilitate wound healing. During the past decade, smart wound dressings have sprouted, and various smart wound dressings including biomechanical wound dressing, stimuli-responsive wound dressing, self-healing wound dressing for motional wounds, self-removable wound dressing and monitoring wound dressing have emerged. However, a review on these smart wound dressings is lacking. Thus, in this review, a summary of smart wound dressings will be given, as well as the status, advances, challenges and future trends of this area, aiming to give researchers a clear understanding of the past, present and future of this emerging area.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe, long-term psychological disorder triggered by distressing events. The neural basis and underlying mechanisms of PTSD are not completely understood. Therefore, it is important to determine the pathology of PTSD using reliable animal models that mimic the symptoms of patients. However, the lack of evidence on the clinical relevance of PTSD animal models makes it difficult to interpret preclinical studies from a translational perspective. In this study, we performed a comprehensive screening of the behavioral, neuronal, glial, and electroencephalographic (EEG) profiles in the single prolonged stress and electric foot shock (SPS&S) mouse model. Based on the clinical features of PTSD, we observed fearful and excessive responses to trauma-related environments in the SPS&S mouse model that lasted longer than 14 days. The mice exhibited a defective and strong resistance to the extinction of fear memories caused by auditory cues and also showed enhanced innate fear induced by visual stimuli with concomitant phobias and anxiety. Furthermore, neurons, astrocytes, and microglia in PTSD-related brain regions were activated, supporting abnormal brain activation and neuroimmune changes. EEG assessment also revealed decreased power and impaired coupling strength between cortical regions. These results demonstrated that the SPS&S mouse model recapitulates the behavioral symptoms as well as neural and EEG profiles of PTSD patients, justifying the preclinical use of this mouse model.

Water resources are drastically decreasing due to the aquatic pollutants involved with the rapid growth of microbial colonies. Mitigation of contaminants and corresponding actions is necessary to impede severe health risks and fulfill clean water demand. Piezocatalysis appears as a potential advanced oxidation technique based on vibrational energy harvesting mechanism and conversion with piezo materials’ assistance. Owing to the effectiveness of piezocatalysis, we synthesized the Cu2MgSnS4 modified BaTiO3 (CMTS@BTO) displayed remarkable piezocatalytic degradation against organic contaminants and microbes. CMTS@BTO revealed more than 90% disinfection in heterotrophic conditions while also degraded 88–98% of organic dyes using ultrasound vibrations. Our findings have a significant contribution to water remediation and indicate potential use in other biological applications.

Silk fibroin (SF) based hydrogels possess great potential in wound healing. However, they have limitations as wound dressings, such as long-gelation time, high temperature or organic solvent-assisted treatment, and lack of self-healing property. In this study, a supramolecular hydrogel based on SF, acryloyl-β-cyclodextrin (Ac-CD) and 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate was developed through a facile method by photo-polymerization of acrylate under UV irradiation, and showed enhanced performance as wound dressing than commercial dressing. This SF based hydrogel was confirmed to be dually crosslinked by host–guest interaction and hydrophobic β-sheet conformation, and demonstrated improved mechanical properties, long-term stability, rapid self-healing behavior, injectability, and good biocompatibility, benefiting its application as wound dressing. Moreover, as a drug carrier owing abundant CDs, the hydrophobic drug curcumin with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity was loaded in SF-based hydrogel, accompanying with a controlled and sustained release profile, therewith boosting better wound healing performance with generating higher granulation tissue thickness, collagen disposition, upregulating vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and decreasing inflammatory response in a full-thickness skin defect model. In conclusion, this novel self-healing SF-based hydrogel is of great value in wound healing and enriches the fabrication methodology of SF-based self-healing biomaterials as well.

Recent advances in soft magnetic nanocomposites have enabled myriads of magnetic robots with programmable shape transformation, shedding light on various biomedical applications. However, the complex shape transformation of magnetic hydrogels remains a challenge because of their ultralow magnetization and simple geometry. Here we demonstrate an approach to meet this challenge by fabricating composite structures of magnetic hydrogels and elastomers with extrusion-based 3D printing. Under an alternating magnetic field, magneto-thermo-sensitive hydrogels — poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) embedding Fe3O4 nanoparticles, can undergo abrupt volume collapse due to magnetothermal effect. The mismatch in the responsiveness of magnetic hydrogels and elastomers enables the shape transformation of the composite structure. We have printed magnetic hydrogels with various geometries and achieved complex shape transformation of the composite structure. The shape transformative structure can simultaneously encase and kill cancer cells (human malignant melanoma cells) through magnetic hyperthermia. ∼ 50% of cancer cells can be killed by the heated magnetic hydrogel during deformation. This approach may open opportunities for applications in medicine and bioengineering.

Epimedium herb is a well-known traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that is used for treating kidney-yang deficiency, impotence and rheumatism, and flavonoids are the main active ingredients. The leaves and rhizomes of Epimedium herb are two separate kinds of medicinal materials with different functional indications and clinical applications. This study aimed to comprehensively analyze the chemical components of different parts of the herb from three Epimedium species (Epimedium sagittatum, E. pubescens and E. myrianthum) by using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with photo-diode array and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-PDA-Q-TOF/MS) and multivariate statistical analysis to clarify the differences. Firstly, the workflow of UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS combined with UNIFI informatics was developed for characterizing the chemical compounds in different parts of Epimedium herb. Based on the exact mass information, the fragmentation characteristics and the retention times of compounds, all chromatographic peaks (74 chemical components) were identified. Secondly, 21 potential chemical markers for differentiating different parts of Epimedium herb were selected through PCA and PLS-DA analysis. The characteristic components in the leaves included flavonoids with Anhydroicaritin (type A, C-4' linked methoxy) as the backbone, and the characteristic components in the stems and rhizomes were Magnoline and flavonoids with Demethylanhydroicaritin (type B, C-4' linked hydroxyl) as the backbone. Thirdly, the UHPLC-PDA combined with heatmap visualization was employed to clarify the distribution of chemical components with high content in different parts of Epimedium herb. The results showed clear differences in the contents of chemical components in leaves, stems and rhizomes. The levels of flavonoids with Anhydroicaritin backbone were high in the leaves, and levels of flavonoids with Demethylanhydroicaritin backbone were high in the rhizomes. The levels of Magnoline in stems and rhizomes were higher than that in leaves. The contents of most of the compounds in stems remained low. The leaves and the other two parts (stems and rhizomes) can be distinguished by qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of Magnoline and Epimedoside A (type B backbone). These results indicated that the different plant parts of Epimedium herb can be quickly and accurately distinguished by this method, establishing a foundation for the application of Epimedium herb.

Injectable hydrogels with pH-responsiveness and self-healing ability have great potential for anti-cancer drug delivery. Herein, we developed a series of polysaccharide-based self-healing hydrogels with pH-sensitivity as drug delivery vehicles for hepatocellular carcinoma therapy. The hydrogels were prepared by using N-carboxyethyl chitosan (CEC) synthesized via Michael reaction in aqueous solution and dibenzaldehyde-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEGDA). Doxorubicin (Dox), as a model of water-soluble small molecule anti-cancer drug was encapsulated into the hydrogel in situ. Self-healing behavior of the hydrogels was investigated at microscopic and macroscopic levels, and the hydrogels showed rapid self-healing performance without any external stimulus owing to the dynamic covalent Schiff-base linkage between amine groups from CEC and benzaldehyde groups from PEGDA. The chemical structures, rheological property, in vitro gel degradation, morphology, gelation time and in vitro Dox release behavior from the hydrogels were characterized. Injectability was verified by in vitro injection and in vivo subcutaneous injection in a rat. pH-responsive behavior was verified by in vitro Dox release from hydrogels in PBS solutions with different pH values. Furthermore, the activity of Dox released from hydrogel matrix was evaluated by employing human hepatocellular liver carcinoma (HepG2). Cytotoxicity test of the hydrogels using L929 cells confirmed their good cytocompatibility. Together, these pH-responsive self-healing injectable hydrogels are excellent candidates as drug delivery vehicles for liver cancer treatment. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: pH-responsive drug delivery system could release drug efficiently in targeted acid environment and minimalize the amount of drug release in normal physiological environment. pH-sensitive injectable hydrogels as smart anti-cancer drug delivery carriers show great potential application for cancer therapy. The hydrogels with self-healing property could prolong their lifetime during implantation and provide the advantage of minimally invasive surgery and high drug-loading ratio. This work reported the design of a series of pH-responsive self-healing injectable hydrogels based on N-carboxyethyl chitosan synthesized in aqueous solution and dibenzaldehyde-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) via a green approach, and demonstrated their potential as intelligent delivery vehicle of doxorubicin for hepatocellular carcinoma therapy via the pH-responsive nature of dynamic Schiff base.

Development of flexible degradable electroactive shape memory polymers (ESMPs) with tunable switching temperature (around body temperature) for tissue engineering is still a challenge. Here we designed and synthesized a series of shape memory copolymers with electroactivity, super stretchability and tunable recovery temperature based on poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) with different molecular weight and conductive amino capped aniline trimer, and demonstrated their potential to enhance myogenic differentiation from C2C12 myoblast cells. We characterized the copolymers by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), cyclic voltammetry (CV), ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–vis), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), shape memory test, tensile test and in vitro enzymatic degradation study. The electroactive biodegradable shape memory copolymers showed great elasticity, tunable recovery temperature around 37 °C, and good shape memory properties. Furthermore, proliferation and differentiation of C2C12 myoblasts were investigated on electroactive copolymers films, and they greatly enhanced the proliferation, myotube formation and related myogenic differentiation genes expression of C2C12 myoblasts compared to the pure PCL with molecular weight of 80,000. Our study suggests that these electroactive, highly stretchable, biodegradable shape memory polymers with tunable recovery temperature near the body temperature have great potential in skeletal muscle tissue engineering application. Statement of Significance Conducting polymers can regulate cell behavior such cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation with or without electrical stimulation. Therefore, they have great potential for electrical signal sensitive tissue regeneration. Although conducting biomaterials with degradability have been developed, highly stretchable and electroactive degradable copolymers for soft tissue engineering have been rarely reported. On the other hand, shape memory polymers (SMPs) have been widely used in biomedical fields. However, SMPs based on polyesters usually are biologically inert. This work reported the design of super stretchable electroactive degradable SMPs based on polycaprolactone and aniline trimer with tunable recovery temperature around body temperature. These flexible electroactive SMPs facilitated the proliferation and differentiation of C2C12 myoblast cells compared with polycaprolactone, indicating that they are excellent scaffolding biomaterials in tissue engineering to repair skeletal muscle and possibly other tissues.

Efficient photocatalysis in the visible light region for degradation of emerging contaminants grasped by quaternary Cu2BaSnS4 (CBTS) quantum dots. Structural, optical, and chemical studies are performed to appraise the physiochemical properties of CBTS. The optimized composition of CBTS with Ba = 0.6 reveals the bandgap of 2.6 eV. High absorption of photons in the visible region and small size made it capable of significant degradation of organic contaminants. The large surface area with sufficient reactive oxygen species disinfected large amounts of E. coli and S. aureus strains. Obtained results reveal that CBTS has excellent potential in photoelectrochemical, photovoltaic, and biological applications.

Designing expandable dry cryogels with biodegradability, rapid blood-sucking expansion and hemostasis for lethal non-compressible hemorrhage and coagulopathy hemorrhage still remains a challenge. Herein, we designed a series of antioxidant, photo-thermal and antibacterial expandable dry cryogels based on polydopamine crosslinked chitosan. The cryogels presented excellent antioxidant activity, outstanding NIR-enhanced antibacterial activity, rapid thrombin release, better blood clotting capacity, and higher blood cells/platelets adhesion and activation than Combat Gauze and gelatin sponge. Besides, all the cryogels showed less blood losses than Combat Gauze and gelatin sponge in mouse liver trauma model, and CS20/PDA4.5 (prepared by 20 mg chitosan and 4.5 mg dopamine) showed the least blood loss. Moreover, CS20/PDA4.5 presented much better hemostatic performance than Combat Gauze and gelatin sponge in rabbit liver non-compressible hemorrhage model with and without administrating anticoagulant. Especially, CS20/PDA4.5 presented excellent hemostatic performance in lethal non-compressible swine subclavian artery and vein transection model. Furthermore, the cryogel showed better wound healing performance than chitosan sponge and Tegaderm™ film. This facile approach opens up new avenue to develop expandable dry cryogels hemostats for lethal non-compressible hemorrhage, coagulopathy hemorrhage and tissue engineering.

Hydrogel dressings with good biocompatibility and the ability to maintain a moist environment at the wound site have great potential for clinical application. Multifunctional injectable self-healing supramolecular hydrogel with conductivity and photo-thermal property as wound dressing to promote wound healing has been not reported. Herein, a series of antibacterial, injectable self-healing and conductive supramolecular hydrogels were fabricated through host-guest interaction based on quaternized chitosan-graft-cyclodextrin (QCS-CD), quaternized chitosan-graft-adamantane (QCS-AD) and graphene oxide-graft-cyclodextrin (GO-CD) polymer solutions which combined the good antibacterial activity of QCS and photo-thermal property of reduced graphene oxide (rGO). These supramolecular hydrogels wound dressings have a conductivity value similar to that of the skin and a rapid self-healing behavior, and have great antibacterial property against E. coli (gram-negative), S. aureus (gram-positive), and multi-drug resistant bacteria (such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA). Furthermore, QCS-CD-AD/GO4 (0.4 wt% of rGO in the sample) shows a good balance between antibacterial activity, cell proliferation and hemocompatibility. Compared with commercial dressings (Tegaderm™ film) and QCS-CD-AD/GO0, the hydrogel QCS-CD-AD/GO4 significantly accelerated the in vivo healing process of full-thickness wounds with promoted epidermis and granulation tissue thickness, increased area coverage of collagen, and up-regulated VEGF expression. In short, these antibacterial, conductive self-healing supramolecular hydrogels are promising biomaterials as wound dressings for full-thickness skin repair.

Myotube formation is crucial to restoring muscular functions, and biomaterials that enhance the myoblast differentiation into myotubes are highly desirable for muscular repair. Here, we report the synthesis of electroactive, ductile, and degradable copolymers and their application in enhancing the differentiation of myoblasts to myotubes. A hyperbranched ductile polylactide (HPLA) was synthesized and then copolymerized with aniline tetramer (AT) to produce a series of electroactive, ductile and degradable copolymers (HPLAAT). The HPLA and HPLAAT showed excellent ductility with strain to failure from 158.9% to 42.7% and modulus from 265.2 to 758.2 MPa. The high electroactivity of the HPLAAT was confirmed by UV spectrometer and cyclic voltammogram measurements. These HPLAAT polymers also showed improved thermal stability and controlled biodegradation rate compared to HPLA. Importantly, when applying these polymers for myotube formation, the HPLAAT significantly improved the proliferation of C2C12 myoblasts in vitro compared to HPLA. Furthermore, these polymers greatly promoted myogenic differentiation of C2C12 cells as measured by quantitative analysis of myotube number, length, diameter, maturation index, and gene expression of MyoD and TNNT. Together, our study shows that these electroactive, ductile and degradable HPLAAT copolymers represent significantly improved biomaterials for muscle tissue engineering compared to HPLA.

Multiferroic CoFe 2 O 4 –Pb(Zr 0.3 ,Ti 0.7 )O 3 (CFO–PZT) nanofibers (NFs) were fabricated by the electrospinning from a mixture of PVP/ions precursor solution. CFO and PZT nanocrystals random stacked along the NF. Microstructure observations reveal that the PZT nanocrystal is surrounded by CFO nanocrystals and vice versa, which result in the disconnected spatial distribution of the piezoelectric coefficient ( d 33 ). Ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity are demonstrated by magnetic hysteresis loops and amplitude–voltage butterfly curve, respectively. Local piezoelectricity cannot represents the whole piezoelectricity of a multiferroic composite NF because it changes near the ferromagnetic crystals. This performance allows further understanding of the strain transformation between each phase in multiferroic composite NFs.

Biomaterials with injectability, conductivity and antibacterial effect simultaneously have been rarely reported. Herein, we developed a new series of in situ forming antibacterial conductive degradable hydrogels using quaternized chitosan (QCS) grafted polyaniline with oxidized dextran as crosslinker. The chemical structures, morphologies, electrochemical property, conductivity, swelling ratio, rheological property, in vitro biodegradation and gelation time of hydrogels were characterized. Injectability was verified by in vivo subcutaneous injection on a Sprague Dawley rat. The antibacterial activity of the hydrogels was firstly evaluated employing antibacterial assay using Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus in vitro. The hydrogels containing polyaniline showed enhanced antibacterial activity compared to QCS hydrogel, especially for hydrogels with 3 wt% polyaniline showing 95 kill% and 90kill% for E. coli and S. aureus, respectively. Compared with QCS hydrogel, the hydrogels with 3 wt% polyaniline still showed enhanced antibacterial activity for E. coli in vivo. The adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) were used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the hydrogels and hydrogels with polyaniline showed better cytocompatibility than QCS hydrogel. The electroactive hydrogels could significantly enhance the proliferation of C2C12 myoblasts compared to QCS hydrogel. This work opens the way to fabricate in situ forming antibacterial and electroactive degradable hydrogels as a new class of bioactive scaffolds for tissue regeneration applications.

The fibrocartilaginous enthesis regeneration after rotator repair is still a major challenge. Although magnesium-based alloy orthopedic implant is effective to promote fibrocartilage formation at the tendon-bone interface in the anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction model, it was limited in the rotator cuff repair for its special anatomical structure. Herein, we developed a multifunctional self-healing magnesium ions-quaternized chitosan/Pluronic® F127 (Mg-QCS/PF) hydrogels to achieve in-situ and customized release of Mg2+, and demonstrated the sustained release of Mg2+ from the hydrogel to significantly promote the rotator cuff repair in the rabbit rotator cuff tear model. The obtained hydrogels showed excellent self-healing and anti-compressive performance. Additionally, the good injectability and adhesive properties of the hydrogels make it easier and stable to deliver Mg2+ at the tendon-bone interface with irregular shapes. The release of Mg2+ from Mg-QCS/PF hydrogels improved the adhesion, proliferation and migration of bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and MC3T3 cells in vitro compared with QCS/PF without Mg2+. Furthermore, the composite hydrogels significantly enhanced the fibrocartilaginous interface regeneration in the rabbit rotator cuff tear model in terms of repaired tendon mature scores, fibrocartilage regeneration, collagen remodeling and biomechanical properties. This is the first study to demonstrate the positive effects of Mg2+ for the rotator cuff healing in the rabbit preclinical model, and the results indicate that the acellular injectable self-healing Mg-doped hydrogels are candidates to effectively promote in situ regeneration of rotator cuff.

Cerebral venous infarction (CVI) caused by the injury of cortical bridging veins (CBVs), is one of the most serious complications following neurosurgical craniotomy. Different from cerebral artery infarction, this CVI pathological process is more complicated, accompanied by acute venous hypertension, brain edema, cerebral ischemia and hemorrhage in the veins bridged brain area. Therefore, a reliable and stable small animal model is particularly important for the pathological study of CVI induced by surgical CBV interruption (CBVi). A mouse model established by cutting off the right CBVs from bregma to lambda with microsurgical technique is used for the assessment of the pathological process. Adult male mice underwent craniotomy after transection of the parietal skin under anesthesia. The right CBVs were exposed by removing the right skull along the right lateral edge of the sagittal sinus (forming a 4 mm × 3 mm bone window from bregma to lambda) with a drill under the operating microscope. Following the final inspection of the cerebral veins, the CBVs (30% one, 60% two, 10% none) were sacrificed using bipolar coagulation technique. Intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring, motor function examination, brain edema assessment and brain histopathological observation after perfusion were performed at different time points (6 h, 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h) in the postoperative mice. Cerebral hemisphere swelling, midline shift and subcortical petechial hemorrhage were found on histological sections 6 h after CBVs dissection. The change of ICP was consistent with cerebral edema and peaked at 12 h after surgery, as well as the disruption of the blood–brain barrier assessed by Evans Blue staining. Tissue necrosis, nerve cell loss and monocytes infiltration were also dynamically increased in the postoperative hemispheric cortex. Behavioral tests showed obvious somato- and forelimb-motor dysfunction, and severe somatosensory disorder on the operative mice at 12 h, which were substantially recovered at 48 h. Our study provided a novel mouse model of CVI caused by surgical CBVi that was close to clinical practice, and preliminarily confirmed its pathological process. This model might become an important tool to study the clinical pathology and the molecular mechanism of nerve injury following CVI.

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. Optogenetics is among the most widely employed techniques to manipulate neuronal activity. However, a major drawback is the need for invasive implantation of optical fibers. To develop a minimally invasive optogenetic method that overcomes this challenge, we engineered a new step-function opsin with ultra-high light sensitivity (SOUL). We show that SOUL can activate neurons located in deep mouse brain regions via transcranial optical stimulation and elicit behavioral changes in SOUL knock-in mice. Moreover, SOUL can be used to modulate neuronal spiking and induce oscillations reversibly in macaque cortex via optical stimulation from outside the dura. By enabling external light delivery, our new opsin offers a minimally invasive tool for manipulating neuronal activity in rodent and primate models with fewer limitations on the depth and size of target brain regions and may further facilitate the development of minimally invasive optogenetic tools for the treatment of neurological disorders.

Developing a novel nanofibrous wound dressing with multi-functional properties, integrating suitable mechanical property, electroactivity, anti-oxidant and inherent antibacterial activity to promote wound healing process is urgently desired, which could meet the increasing requirements of clinical needs. Herein, a series of antibacterial, anti-oxidant and electroactive nanofibrous membranes were fabricated by electrospinning poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL) and quaternized chitosan-graft-polyaniline (QCSP) polymer solutions which combined the good mechanical property of PCL and multi-functionality of QCSP. The nanofibrous wound dressings exhibited electroactivity, similar mechanical properties to soft tissue, free radical scavenging capacity, antibacterial property, and biocompatibility. In particular, PCL/QCSP15 (15 wt% of QCSP in the sample) showed a good balanced ability between antibacterial activity and cell proliferation, which significantly accelerated the healing process of wound in a mouse full-thickness wounds defect model than commercial dressing (Tegaderm™ Film) and pure PCL (PCL/QCSP0) nanofibrous membrane. Moreover, the histopathological examination and immunofluorescence staining showed that the wounds treated by PCL/QCSP15 nanofiber dressing exhibited higher collagen deposition, granulation tissue thickness, and more angiogenesis. In one word, these antibacterial, anti-oxidant, electroactivity nanofibrous membranes showed promising applications for full-thickness skin repair.

Emerging contaminants and related health risks restrain aged treatment approaches. A better-premise understanding of water remediation attained by mutual contamination relational realization (MCRR). Precisely engineered Cu2MgSnS4 (CMTS) decorated BaTiO3 (BTO) composites demonstrated a remarkable removal of organic contaminants and inactivation of harmful bacterium. It showed a valuable 97 % degradation of organic dyes and strong bacterial antagonism for both Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Implantation of P-type CMTS on the surface of n-type BTO caused formation of a space charge layer (SCL), which affected diffusion of charge carriers. Junction at the interface of constituent materials and built-in electric field increased negative and positive carrier’s separation. Bandgap of the composites decreased from 3.4 eV to 2.6 eV by adjusting the composition of CMTS, which drastically augmented their ability to harvest the visible light. Therefore this study opens a new door for potential photocatalytic applications.

Although exogenous nerve growth factor (NGF) demonstrated great potential for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment, its therapeutic effect and underlying cytological mechanism were not fully elucidated so far. We employed a controlled, prospectively designed modified single prolonged stress mice model to investigate the role of exogenous NGF on the modified single prolonged stress induced PTSD-like symptoms and hippocampal cytoarchitecture impairment, as well as the potential neuronal signaling modulation. We discovered that the modified single prolonged stress-exposure induced significant PTSD-like symptoms as well as mildly impaired hippocampal Cornu Ammonis 1 (CA1) subregion cytoarchitecture, but not dentate gyrus neurogenesis, together with a gradual inhibition of TrkA-CREB-ERK signalings in hippocampal CA1 subregion. NGF treatment dose-dependently ameliorated the modified single prolonged stress induced PTSD-like symptoms. NGF increased the cytoplasm/nucleus ratio and improved the neuronal plasticity, mainly via the TrkA-ERK-CREB pathway. Our study offered the translational evidence for the potential application of exogenous NGF for treating or early preventing PTSD after stress exposure.

Muscle tissues are soft tissues that are of great importance in force generation, body movements, postural support and internal organ function. Muscle tissue injuries would not only result in the physical and psychological pain and disability to the patient, but also become a severe social problem due to the heavy financial burden they laid on the governments. Current treatments for muscle tissue injuries all have their own severe limitations and muscle tissue engineering has been proposed as a promising therapeutic strategy to treat with this problem. Conductive biomaterials are good candidates as scaffolds in muscle tissue engineering due to their proper conductivity and their promotion on muscle tissue formation. However, a review of conductive biomaterials function in muscle tissue engineering, including the skeletal muscle tissue, cardiac muscle tissue and smooth muscle tissue regeneration is still lacking. Here we reviewed the recent progress of conductive biomaterials for muscle regeneration. The recent synthesis and fabrication methods of conductive scaffolds containing conductive polymers (mainly polyaniline, polypyrrole and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), carbon-based nanomaterials (mainly graphene and carbon nanotube), and metal-based biomaterials were systematically discussed, and their application in a variety of forms (such as hydrogels, films, nanofibers, and porous scaffolds) for different kinds of muscle tissues formation (skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle and smooth muscle) were summarized. Furthermore, the mechanism of how the conductive biomaterials affect the muscle tissue formation was discussed and the future development directions were included.