Carbon Nanohorns Promote Maturation of Neonatal Rat Ventricular Myocytes and Inhibit Proliferation of Cardiac Fibroblasts: a Promising Scaffold for Cardiac Tissue Engineering.
Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) has developed rapidly, but a great challenge remains in finding practical scaffold materials for the construction of engineered cardiac tissues. Carbon nanohorns (CNHs) may be a potential candidate due to their special structure and properties. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of CNHs on the biological behavior of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) for CTE applications. CNHs were incorporated into collagen to form growth substrates for NRVMs. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations demonstrated that CNHs exhibited a good affinity to collagen. Moreover, it was found that CNH-embedded substrates enhanced adhesion and proliferation of NRVMs. Immunohistochemical staining, western blot analysis, and intracellular calcium transient measurements indicated that the addition of CNHs significantly increased the expression and maturation of electrical and mechanical proteins (connexin-43 and N-cadherin). Bromodeoxyuridine staining and a Cell Counting Kit-8 assay showed that CNHs have the ability to inhibit the proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts. These findings suggest that CNHs can have a valuable effect on the construction of engineered cardiac tissues and may be a promising scaffold for CTE.
Department of Cardiology, General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Yongding Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100039, China.
Yujing
Y
Wu
National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100080, China.
Xiaoli
X
Shi
Department of Cardiology, General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Yongding Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100039, China.
Yi
Y
Li
Department of Cardiology, General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Yongding Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100039, China.
Lei
L
Tian
Department of Cardiology, General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Yongding Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100039, China.
Rui
R
Bai
Department of Cardiology, General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Yongding Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100039, China.
Yujie
Y
Wei
National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100080, China.
Dong
D
Han
Department of Cardiology, General Hospital of Chinese People's Armed Police Forces, Yongding Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100039, China. lhl518@vip.sina.com.
Huiliang
H
Liu
National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100080, China. xujx@nanoctr.cn.
Jianxun
J
Xu
Carbon nanohorns; Cardiac fibroblasts; Cardiac tissue engineering; Maturation; Neonatal rat ventricular myocytes