Exploration of de novo‐ synthesized Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) Nanoparticles as an Additive to Growth Media for Myoblasts

Skeletal muscle tissue engineering aims to repair a large area of damaged muscle caused by injuries or illness due to the difficulty of the cells naturally regenerating large tissue loss. Supplements help restore this loss via myoblast proliferation and maturation. Zinc excites the signal pathways for myogenesis, and as a supplement it should increase myoblast proliferation and maturation. The project goal was to synthesize nanoparticles that will stay suspended in cell media and allow the transfer of the zinc ion to increase muscle cell proliferation and maturation. Zeolitic imidazole framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) were created using a de novo synthesis, with the desired carboxaldehydes attached to the four imidazole rings surrounding a zinc ion core (Krishna et al. 2017). After synthesis, MP‐AES, FT‐IR, 13 C‐NMR, and 1 H‐NMR instruments were used to characterize the ZIF‐8 nanoparticles. The synthesized product yields were 0.1098 g, 0.7400 g, and 0.1492 g, but the characterization data was inconsistent. 10 mg, 50 mg, and 100 mg of the synthesized products were then suspended in vials of 10 mL of phosphate buffered saline (PBS), sonicated for four, and six minutes with 20 seconds on and off, and the suspension time recorded. The 50 mg and 100 mg had the lowest suspension times (21 s to 162 s) while the 10 mg of product had higher suspension times (16 s to 384 s). In conclusion, the de novo ZIF‐8 synthesis provided varying product yields; however, the suspendability times were too low. Ongoing research will focus on characterization, increasing the amount of zinc, and increasing the suspension time.