Enhancing the Conductivity of Cell-Laden Alginate Microfibers With Aqueous Graphene for Neural Applications

Frontiers in Materials

Nicole N. Hashemi¹  Jasmin Okuzono²  Amir Ehsan Niaraki-Asli³  Marilyn C. McNamara⁴  Reza Montazami⁴  Jingshuai Guo⁴ 

[1] Department of Biomedical Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States;Department of Chemical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States;Department of Computer Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States;Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States;

关键词: alginate microfibers;    graphene;    conductivity;    cell encapsulation;    3D cell coculture;    microfluidics;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmats.2020.00061

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Microfluidically manufacturing graphene-alginate microfibers create possibilities for encapsulating rat neural cells within conductive 3D tissue scaffolding to enable the creation of real-time 3D sensing arrays with high physiological relavancy. Cells are encapsulated using the biopolymer alginate, which is combined with graphene to create a cell-containing hydrogel with increased electrical conductivity. Resulting novel alginate-graphene microfibers showed a 2.5-fold increase over pure alginate microfibers, but did not show significant differences in size and porosity. Cells encapsulated within the microfibers survive for up to 8 days, and maintain ~20% live cells over that duration. The biocompatible aqueous graphene suspension used in this investigation was obtained via liquid phase exfoliation of pristine graphite, to create a graphene-alginate pre-hydrogel solution.

【 授权许可】

Unknown