Conductive biomaterials in cardiac tissue engineering

Conductive biomaterials (including conductive polymer, carbon-base materials, nanogold, and conductive silicon nanowires etc.) with prominent electrical conductivity, good cellular response, and promotion of cell-cell signaling transduction are possibly more suitable for cardiac tissue engineering. To date, their excellent properties catch more attention of the researchers to investigate their roles in life science research. Due to the limited therapeutic approaches of myocardial infarction (MI), engineered cardiac patches have received more attention in the treatment of MI. While, conductive biomaterial taken as a scaffold for cardiac tissue engineering is a promising strategy to repair infarct myocardium and improve the cardiac function. In this review, we summarized the fabrication of various conductive biomaterials for cardiac tissue engineering, and discuss the interaction between the conductive biomaterials and the cells [cardiomyocytes (CMs) and stem cells]. The advance of conductive biomaterials in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and bio-sensing are also demonstrated.