Publication Date
12-2025
Date of Final Oral Examination (Defense)
6-13-2025
Type of Culminating Activity
Dissertation
Degree Title
Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering
Department
Biological Sciences
Supervisory Committee Chair
David Estrada, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Sophia Theodossiou, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
Eric Hayden, Ph.D.
Supervisory Committee Member
John Oakey, Ph.D.
Abstract
Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of joint degeneration, with limited treatment options that fail to restore native cartilage. Tissue engineering offers a promising strategy by combining cells, scaffolds, and bioactive cues to regenerate functional tissue, though challenges remain in developing systems that integrate and precisely control these signals in three-dimensional environments. This work establishes a scaffold-coupled electrical stimulation (ES) platform using electroactive graphene foam (GF) to modulate cellular and mechanical responses relevant to cartilage tissue engineering. Custom stereolithography-printed bioreactors were developed to deliver low-voltage biphasic square waves (20–60 mVpp, 1 kHz) directly to GF scaffolds under submerged culture, maintaining waveform fidelity and cytocompatibility (>90% viability). ATDC5 chondroprogenitor cells exhibited strong attachment and infiltration within the opaque 3D scaffold, visualized using a correlative imaging workflow combining fluorescence, SEM, and X-ray micro-CT. ES induced up to a 230% increase in calcium fluorescence intensity, and proteomic analysis revealed voltage-dependent shifts in ECM, cytoskeletal, and signaling protein expression. These molecular differences coincided with enhanced mechanical performance, with stimulated composites showing up to a ~25% increase in equilibrium modulus and 65.6% greater energy dissipation under cyclic compression at 60 mVpp. This integrated system offers a tunable platform for delivering and studying direct ES in vitro and provides new insights into the mechanistic effects of electrical cues on chondroprogenitor behavior.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.18122/td.2472.boisestate
Recommended Citation
Sawyer, Mone't, "Harnessing Bioscaffold-Coupled Stimulation Through Electroactive Graphene Foam for Enhanced Cellular and Mechanical Responses: Applications in Cartilage Tissue Engineering" (2025). Boise State University Theses and Dissertations. 2472.
https://doi.org/10.18122/td.2472.boisestate