KU Leuven, Department of Materials Engineering, Kasteelpark Arenberg 44, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; KU Leuven, Division Prometheus - Skeletal Tissue Engineering, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
KU Leuven, Department of Materials Engineering, Kasteelpark Arenberg 44, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; KU Leuven, Division Prometheus - Skeletal Tissue Engineering, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; KU Leuven, Department of Chemistry, Celestijnenlaan 200F, 3001 Leuven, Belgium.
Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2019 May;98:1133-1144. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2019.01.020. Epub 2019 Jan 8.
Hydrogels are attractive materials for stimulating 3D cell growth and tissue regeneration, and they provide mechanical support and physical cues to guide cell behavior. Herein, we developed a robust methodology to increase the stiffness of polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogels by successfully incorporating carbon nanotubes (CNTs) within the polymer matrix. Interestingly, hydrogels containing pristine CNTs showed a higher stiffness (1915 ± 102 Pa) than both hydrogels without CNTs (1197 ± 125 Pa) and hydrogels incorporating PEG-grafted CNTs (867 ± 103 Pa) (p < 0.005). The swelling ratio was lower for hydrogels with pristine CNTs (45.4 ± 3.5) and hydrogels without CNTs (46.7 ± 5.1) compared to the hydrogels with PEG-grafted CNTs (62.8 ± 2.6). To confirm that the CNT-reinforced hydrogels were cytocompatible, the viability, proliferation, and morphology of encapsulated L929 fibroblasts was investigated. All hydrogel formulations supported cell proliferation, and the addition of pristine CNTs increased initial cell viability (83.3 ± 10.7%) compared to both pure PEG hydrogels (51.9 ± 8.3%) and hydrogels with PEG-CNTs (63.1 ± 10.9%) (p < 0.005). Altogether, these results demonstrate that incorporation of CNTs could effectively reinforce PEG hydrogels and that the resulting cytocompatible nanocomposites are promising scaffolds for tissue engineering.
水凝胶是刺激 3D 细胞生长和组织再生的有吸引力的材料，它们为细胞行为提供机械支撑和物理线索。在此，我们成功地将碳纳米管 (CNT) 纳入聚合物基质中，开发了一种增强聚乙二醇 (PEG) 水凝胶硬度的稳健方法。有趣的是，含有原始 CNT 的水凝胶的硬度（1915±102Pa）高于不含 CNT 的水凝胶（1197±125Pa）和含有 PEG 接枝 CNT 的水凝胶（867±103Pa）（p<0.005）。与含有 PEG 接枝 CNT 的水凝胶（62.8±2.6）相比，含有原始 CNT 的水凝胶（45.4±3.5）和不含 CNT 的水凝胶（46.7±5.1）的溶胀比更低。为了确认 CNT 增强水凝胶具有细胞相容性，研究了封装的 L929 成纤维细胞的活力、增殖和形态。所有水凝胶配方均支持细胞增殖，与纯 PEG 水凝胶（51.9±8.3%）和含有 PEG-CNTs 的水凝胶（63.1±10.9%）相比，添加原始 CNT 可提高初始细胞活力（83.3±10.7%）（p<0.005）。总之，这些结果表明，CNT 的掺入可以有效地增强 PEG 水凝胶，并且由此产生的细胞相容性纳米复合材料是组织工程有前途的支架。
