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Novel injectable biomimetic hydrogels with carbon nanofibers and self assembled rosette nanotubes for myocardial applications
Author(s) -
Meng Xiangling,
Stout David A.,
Sun Linlin,
Beingessner Rachel L.,
Fenniri Hicham,
Webster Thomas J.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.34400
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , nanofiber , carbon nanotube , methacrylate , carbon nanofiber , tissue engineering , conductivity , ultimate tensile strength , composite number , chemical engineering , biomedical engineering , polymerization , polymer , medicine , chemistry , engineering
The objective of the present in vitro study was to investigate cardiomyocyte functions, specifically their adhesion and proliferation, on injectable scaffolds containing RNT (rosette nanotubes) and CNF (carbon nanofibers) in a pHEMA (poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate)) hydrogel to determine their potential for myocardial tissue engineering applications. RNTs are novel biocompatible nanomaterials assembled from synthetic analogs of DNA bases guanine and cytosine that self‐assemble within minutes when placed in aqueous solutions at body temperatures. These materials could potentially improve cardiomyocyte functions and solidification time of pHEMA and CNF composites. Because heart tissue is conductive, CNFs were added to pHEMA to increase the composite's conductivity. Our results showed that cardiomyocyte density increased after 4 h, 1 day, and 3 days with greater amounts of CNFs and greater amounts of RNTs in pHEMA (up to 10 mg mL −1 CNFs and 0.05 mg mL −1 RNTs). Factors that may have increased cardiomyocyte functions include greater wettability, conductivity, and an increase in surface nanoroughness with greater amounts of CNFs and RNTs. In effect, contact angles measured on the surface of the composites decreased while the conductivity and surface roughness increased as CNFs and RNTs content increased. Lastly, the ultimate tensile modulus decreased for composites with greater amounts of CNFs. In summary, the properties of these injectable composites make them promising candidates for myocardial tissue engineering applications and should be further studied. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A, 2013.