Morphology of fibroblasts grown on substrates formed by dielectrophoretically aligned carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Multiwall carbon nanotube templates formed on the surfaces of planar interdigitated microelectrode arrays by means of AC electric field-guided assembly are being explored as potential substrates for tissue engineering. The objective of the present study is to examine whether surface patterns of aligned multiwall carbon nanotubes can have an effect on cell growth, morphology, and alignment. Bovine fibroblasts grown on aligned carbon nanotubes for a period of 2 weeks were found to have raised bodies and pronounced cell extensions for anchoring themselves to the substrate similar to that of the cells found in native tissues. On the other hand, cells grown on various control surfaces had a flat, circular morphology. The cell cultures were visualized by means of SEM imaging and the resulting morphologies were statistically analyzed and compared.

Alignment of muscle precursor cells on the vertical edges of thick carbon nanotube films

“…A survey of recent literature using CNTs as cell growth substrates and effects on biological activity is shown in Table 1 [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][17][18][19][24][25][26][27] of the Supplementary data. An examination of these literature shows that both MWNT and SWNT are able to perform well as bioactive supports for many cell types and that aligned MWNTs can influence cell alignment.…”

“…Such sheets were subsequently used to cultivate ovary cells with a high degree of alignment [8]. Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) have been used as matrix for the culture of a number of cell types including osteoblasts [9,10], fibroblasts [11] stem cells [12][13][14] and cardiomyocytes [15]. However, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been shown to have improved in vivo biocompatibility compared with multi-wall CNTs [16] and may therefore be preferable for tissue engineering applications.…”

Bioanalytical separations using electric field gradient techniques

“…The growth, morphology, and alignment of bovine fibroblasts were studied by Yuen et al [53]. Cells were seeded on substrates formed through electric field-directed patterning of multiwall carbon nanotubes on flat surfaces.…”

Dielectrophoretic Deposition and Alignment of Carbon Nanotubes

“…Recently, devices based on dielectrophoresis-aligned CNTs have been developed and used in various applications such as biocompatible substrates for cell growth (Yuen et al, 2008), bacteria capturing chips (Zhou et al, 2006), gas sensors (Lim et al, 2010), and memory devices (Di Bartolomeo et al, 2010). Numerical studies have also been performed to provide theoretical support of the process (Dimaki & Bøggild, 2004;Padmaraj et al, 2009).…”