title: Development of functionalized multi-walled carbon-nanotube-based alginate hydrogels for enabling biomimetic technologies.
abstract: Alginate is a hydrogel commonly used for cell culture by ionically crosslinking in the presence of divalent Ca(2+) ions. However these alginate gels are mechanically unstable, not permitting their use as scaffolds to engineer robust biological bone, breast, cardiac or tumor tissues. This issue can be addressed via encapsulation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) serving as a reinforcing phase while being dispersed in a continuous phase of alginate. We hypothesized that adding functionalized MWCNT to alginate, would yield composite gels with distinctively different mechanical, physical and biological characteristics in comparison to alginate alone. Resultant MWCNT-alginate gels were porous, and showed significantly less degradation after 14 days compared to alginate alone. In vitro cell-studies showed enhanced HeLa cell adhesion and proliferation on the MWCNT-alginate compared to alginate. The extent of cell proliferation was greater when cultured atop 1 and 3 mg/ml MWCNT-alginate; although all MWCNT-alginates lead to enhanced cell cluster formation compared to alginate alone. Among all the MWCNT-alginates, the 1 mg/ml gels showed significantly greater stiffness compared to all other cases. These results provide an important basis for the development of the MWCNT-alginates as novel substrates for cell culture applications, cell therapy and tissue engineering.
authors: Department of Metallurgical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.|Border Biomedical Research Center, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
authors: Binata
authors: B
authors: Joddar
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
authors: Eduardo
authors: E
authors: Garcia
authors: Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
authors: Atzimba
authors: A
authors: Casas
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Avenue, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
authors: Calvin M
authors: CM
authors: Stewart
mesh_terms: D000464:Alginates / Q000737:chemistry*; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000187:drug effects; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D020723:Glucuronic Acid / Q000737:chemistry; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006603:Hexuronic Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D016062:Porosity; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
chemical_list: D000464:Alginates; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D006603:Hexuronic Acids; D020100:Hydrogels; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D020723:Glucuronic Acid