title: Elastomeric nanocomposite scaffolds made from poly (glycerol sebacate) chemically crosslinked with carbon nanotubes.
abstract: Carbon nanotube (CNT)-based nanocomposites often possess properties such as high stiffness, electrical conductivity, and thermal stability and have been studied for various biomedical and biotechnological applications. However, the current design approaches utilize CNTs as physical filler, and thus, the true potential of CNT-based nanocomposites has not been achieved. Here, we introduce a general approach of fabricating stiff, elastomeric nanocomposites from poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) and CNTs. The covalent crosslinking between the nanotubes and polymer chains resulted in novel property combinations that are not observed in conventional nanocomposites. The addition of 1% CNTs resulted a five-fold increase in the tensile modulus and a six-fold increase in compression modulus compared with PGS alone, which is far superior to the previously reported studies for CNT-based nanocomposites. Despite significant increase in mechanical stiffness, the elasticity of the network was not compromised and the resulting nanocomposites showed more than 94% recovery. This study demonstrates that the chemical conjugation of CNTs to a PGS backbone results in stiff and elastomeric nanocomposites. Additionally,in vitrostudies using human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) indicated that the incorporation of CNTs to PGS network significantly enhanced the differentiation potential of the seeded hMSCs rendering them potentially suitable for applications ranging from scaffolding in musculoskeletal tissue engineering to biosensors in biomedical devices.
authors.affiliation: David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA) ; Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115 (USA).
authors.forename: Akhilesh K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Gaharwar
authors.affiliation: Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA) ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA).
authors.forename: Alpesh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115 (USA) ; Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA) ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA).
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dolatshahi-Pirouz
authors.affiliation: Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA) ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA).
authors.forename: Hongbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA) ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA).
authors.forename: Kaushik
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rangarajan
authors.affiliation: Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA) ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA).
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Iviglia
authors.affiliation: Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115 (USA) ; Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA) ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA).
authors.forename: Su-Ryon
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Biomedical Engineering Option), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohammad Asif
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.affiliation: Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115 (USA) ; Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Division of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA) ; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (USA) ; Department of Maxillofacial Biomedical Engineering and Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea ; Department of Physics, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21569, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khademhosseini