Bio-interface of conducting polymer-based materials for neuroregeneration

Nerve system diseases like Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease, etc. seriously affect thousands of patients' lives every year, making them suffer from pains and inconvenience. Recently, bio-interfaces between neural cells/tissues and polymer based biomaterials attracted worldwide attention due to the ability of polymer based biomaterials to serve as nerve conduits, drug carriers and neurites guidance platform in neuroregeneration. The role that bio-interface played and the way it interacted with neural tissues and cells have been thoroughly investigated by the researchers. In this paper we mainly focus on reviewing the bio-interface between nerve tissues/cells and advanced functional biocompatible polymers, such as conducting polymers and advanced carbon composite materials. These advanced polymers can provide combined interfacial stimulations including interfacial external neurotrophic factors (NTFs) delivery, electrical stimulation, surface guidance and molecules decoration to lesion cells and tissues to promote neuroregeneration in vitro and in vivo, and have contributed greatly to nerve diseases therapy. At the end of this review, the criteria of polymer based biomaterials utilized in neuroregeneration are summarized and the perspectives for future development of bio-interfaces are also discussed.