title: Biocompatibility of soft-templated mesoporous carbons.
abstract: Soft-templated mesoporous carbon is morphologically a non-nano type of carbon. It is a relatively newer variety of biomaterial, which has already demonstrated its successful role in drug delivery applications. To investigate the toxicity and biocompatibility, we introduced three types of mesoporous carbons with varying synthesis conditions and pore textural properties. We compared the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and pore width and performed cytotoxicity experiments with HeLa cells, cell viability studies with fibroblast cells and hemocomapatibility studies. Cytotoxicity tests reveal that two of the carbons are not cytotoxic, with cell survival over 90%. The mesoporous carbon with the highest surface area showed slight toxicity (∼ 70% cell survival) at the highest carbon concentration of 500 μg/mL. Fibroblast cell viability assays suggested high and constant viability of over 98% after 3 days with no apparent relation with materials property and good visible cell-carbon compatibility. No hemolysis (<1%) was confirmed for all the carbon materials. Protein adsorption experiments with bovine serum albumin (BSA) and fibrinogen revealed a lower protein binding capacity of 0.2-0.6 mg/m(2) and 2-4 mg/m(2) for BSA and fibrinogen, respectively, with lower binding associated with an increase in surface area. The results of this study confirm the biocompatibility of soft-templated mesoporous carbons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University , 1400 Townsend Dr., Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States.
authors.forename: Maria F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Gencoglu
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spurri
authors.forename: Mitchell
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Franko
authors.forename: Jihua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Dale K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Hensley
authors.forename: Caryn L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Heldt
authors.forename: Dipendu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Saha
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002244:Carbon / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002417:Cattle; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000187:drug effects; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006461:Hemolysis / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D016062:Porosity; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D002244:Carbon
keywords: biocompatibility; cell viability; cytotoxicity; hemolysis; mesoporous carbon; protein adsorption