Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.
Sci Rep. 2022 Jul 14;12(1):12062. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-16247-7.
Tissue engineering is one of the hot topics in recent research that needs special requirements. It depends on the development of scaffolds that allow tissue formation with certain characteristics, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)-collagen composite attracted the attention of the researchers with this respect. However, CNTs suffer from low water dispersibility, which hampered their utilization. Therefore, we aim to functionalize CNTs non-covalently with pyrene moiety using an appropriate hydrophilic linker derivatized from polyethylene glycol (PEG) terminated with hydroxyl or carboxyl group to disperse them in water. The functionalization of the CNTs is successfully confirmed by TEM, absorption spectroscopy, TGA, and zeta potential analysis. 3T3 cells-based engineered connective tissues (ECTs) are generated with different concentrations of the functionalized CNTs (f-CNTs). These tissues show a significant enhancement in electrical conductivity at a concentration of 0.025%, however, the cell viability is reduced by about 10 to 20%. All ECTs containing f-CNTs show a significant reduction in tissue fibrosis and matrix porosity relative to the control tissues. Taken together, the developed constructs show great potential for further in vivo studies as engineered tissue.
组织工程是近年来研究的热点话题之一，需要特殊的要求。它依赖于支架的发展，允许具有一定特性的组织形成，碳纳米管（CNTs）-胶原蛋白复合材料在这方面引起了研究人员的关注。然而，CNTs 水溶性差，这阻碍了它们的利用。因此，我们旨在通过使用适当的亲水性链接物将 CNTs 非共价功能化，该链接物由末端带有羟基或羧基的聚乙二醇（PEG）衍生而来，以在水中分散 CNTs。CNTs 的功能化通过 TEM、吸收光谱、TGA 和 ζ 电位分析得到成功证实。用不同浓度的功能化 CNTs（f-CNTs）生成基于 3T3 细胞的工程化结缔组织（ECT）。在浓度为 0.025%时，这些组织的电导率显著提高，然而，细胞活力降低了约 10%至 20%。所有含有 f-CNTs 的 ECT 组织相对于对照组织，组织纤维化和基质孔隙率显著降低。总之，所开发的构建体作为工程化组织具有进一步体内研究的巨大潜力。
