Neuronal differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells in response to the domain size of graphene substrates

Abstract

Graphene is a noncytotoxic monolayer platform with unique physical, chemical, and biological properties. It has been demonstrated that graphene substrate may provide a promising biocompatible scaffold for stem cell therapy. Because chemical vapor deposited graphene has a two dimensional polycrystalline structure, it is important to control the individual domain size to obtain desirable properties for nano-material. However, the biological effects mediated by differences in domain size of graphene have not yet been reported. On the basis of the control of graphene domain achieved by one-step growth (1step-G, small domain) and two-step growth (2step-G, large domain) process, we found that the neuronal differentiation of bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) highly depended on the graphene domain size. The defects at the domain boundaries in 1step-G graphene was higher (38.5) and had a relatively low (13% lower) contact angle of water droplet than 2step-G graphene, leading to enhanced cellsubstrate adhesion and upregulated neuronal differentiation of hMSCs. We confirmed that the strong interactions between cells and defects at the domain boundaries in 1step-G graphene can be obtained due to their relatively high surface energy, which is stronger than interactions between cells and graphene surfaces. Our results may provide valuable information on the development of graphene-based scaffold by understanding which properties of graphene domain influence cell adhesion efficacy and stem cell differentiation.

Electroactive Scaffolds for Neurogenesis and Myogenesis: Graphene‐Based Nanomaterials

“…Furthermore, various parameters of CVD grown graphene (including domain size, defect density, contact angle, surface nanotopography, etc.) could affect cell–substrate adhesion, cell proliferation, and neuronal differentiation of stem cells . In another work, Fischer et al investigated whether the addition of a graphene monolayer on top of laminin/Poly‐ d ‐lysine (PDL) coated glass substrate could influence the RGCs–substrate interactions, which reveals that graphene did not significantly influence the cell viability and vitality .…”

Neurons from human mesenchymal stem cells display both spontaneous and stimuli responsive activity

“…Inducers used in these strategies are generally divided into four groups: small molecules, epigenetic modifications, psychotropic drugs and enriched media (medium coctails with chemical inducers) [12]. Alternatively, differentiation of neurons from MSCs was reported in different ways such as using co-culture conditions, exosomes and graphene substrates [13][14][15]. Neuronal differentiation attempts of MSCs in media containing chemical reagents provided a faster differentiation rate compared to other methods [16].…”

Differentiation of stem cells from apical papilla into neural lineage using graphene dispersion and single walled carbon nanotubes

“…RNA purity and concentration were assessed using microvolume spectrophotometer (BioSpec Nano, Shimadzu, Japan). One microgram of total RNA was reversely transcribed to cDNA using RevertAid First Strand cDNA Synthesis Kit (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and oligo (dT) 18 primers. cDNA was subsequently used for Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) analyses on a Line Gene-K Fluorescence Real-time PCR Detection System (BIOER Technology, Shanghai, China).…”

“…Graphene based nanomaterials (GBN), are also becoming increasingly popular in bioengineering, due to their biophysical properties along with their biocompatibility . Graphene improves cell adhesion during the differentiation process and promotes differentiation toward neurons more than toward glial cells.…”

“…9 Graphene based nanomaterials (GBN), are also becoming increasingly popular in bioengineering, due to their biophysical properties along with their biocompatibility. [15][16][17][18] Graphene improves cell adhesion during the differentiation process and promotes differentiation toward neurons more than toward glial cells. All reported data suggest that GBNs, and among them more specifically graphene oxide, may represent a superior nanostructured scaffold for neural differentiation and neuro-regeneration.…”