Department of Chemistry, Institute for the BioCentury, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 373-1 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea.
ACS Nano. 2010 Nov 23;4(11):6587-98. doi: 10.1021/nn1018279. Epub 2010 Oct 27.
Carbon-based materials, including graphene and carbon nanotubes, have been considered attractive candidates for biomedical applications such as scaffolds in tissue engineering, substrates for stem cell differentiation, and components of implant devices. Despite the potential biomedical applications of these materials, only limited information is available regarding the cellular events, including cell viability, adhesion, and spreading, that occur when mammalian cells interface with carbon-based nanomaterials. Here, we report behaviors of mammalian cells, specifically NIH-3T3 fibroblast cells, grown on supported thin films of graphene and carbon nanotubes to investigate biocompatibility of the artificial surface. Proliferation assay, cell shape analysis, focal adhesion study, and quantitative measurements of cell adhesion-related gene expression levels by RT-PCR reveal that the fibroblast cells grow well, with different numbers and sizes of focal adhesions, on graphene- and carbon nanotube-coated substrates. Interestingly, the gene transfection efficiency of cells grown on the substrates was improved up to 250% that of cells grown on a cover glass. The present study suggests that these nanomaterials hold high potential for bioapplications showing high biocompatibility, especially as surface coating materials for implants, without inducing notable deleterious effects while enhancing some cellular functions (i.e., gene transfection and expression).
碳基材料，包括石墨烯和碳纳米管，被认为是生物医学应用的有吸引力的候选材料，如组织工程中的支架、干细胞分化的基质和植入物设备的组成部分。尽管这些材料具有潜在的生物医学应用，但关于哺乳动物细胞与碳基纳米材料相互作用时发生的细胞事件（包括细胞活力、黏附和铺展），仅有有限的信息。在这里，我们报告了在支持的石墨烯和碳纳米管薄膜上生长的哺乳动物细胞（特别是 NIH-3T3 成纤维细胞）的行为，以研究人工表面的生物相容性。增殖测定、细胞形态分析、焦点黏附研究以及通过 RT-PCR 定量测量细胞黏附相关基因表达水平的研究表明，成纤维细胞在石墨烯和碳纳米管涂层基底上生长良好，具有不同数量和大小的焦点黏附。有趣的是，在基底上生长的细胞的基因转染效率提高了 250%，而在盖玻片上生长的细胞的基因转染效率提高了 250%。本研究表明，这些纳米材料具有很高的生物应用潜力，表现出很高的生物相容性，特别是作为植入物的表面涂层材料，在增强某些细胞功能（如基因转染和表达）的同时，不会产生明显的有害影响。
