Biocompatible Poly(L‐lactide)/MWCNT Nanocomposites: Morphological Characterization, Electrical Properties, and Stem Cell Interaction

Abstract

The promising perspectives of PLLA-based nanostructured biomaterials and their relevance in tissue engineering are reported. Nanocomposites based on PLLA and MWCNTs are developed with an MWCNT content ranging from 0 to 3 wt%. The electrical properties show a percolation threshold within a range of 0.21-0.33 wt% MWCNTs, and the conductivity increases by six orders of magnitude. The surface structure shows changes with the carbon nanotube concentration. The functional role of MWCNTs incorporation in terms of interactions with adult stem cells suggests that PLLA/MWCNT nanocomposites are suitable substrates for primary stem cell culture.

Poly(butylene cyclohexanedicarboxylate/diglycolate) random copolymers reinforced with SWCNTs for multifunctional conductive biopolymer composites

“…The electrical conductivity of the composites with 0.50 wt% SWCNTs was three orders of magnitude greater than that of the composite with 0.1 wt% SWCNTs. These data are in agreement with our recent results obtained by dispersing CNT in poly (L-Lactide) polymer matrix, by using the same dispersing procedure [28]. As expected, the composites produced from the different polymers, presented the same percolation behavior with the introduction of SWCNTs, since the conductive behavior is mainly due to the SWCNT presence, content and process technology.…”

PLLA/ZnO nanocomposites: Dynamic surfaces to harness cell differentiation

“…[8,9] In this sense, both bulk and surface nanoparticle dispersion were evaluated by field emision scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) respectively. respectively.…”

“…[2][3][4][5] Numerous authors have modified PLLA to improve its characteristics for scaffolding in tissue engineering; to this purpose, PLLA has been blended with other polymers or inorganic materials to create composites. Different inorganic materials have been used such as hydroxyapatite (HAp), [6,7] carbon nanotubes (CNTs), [8][9][10] bioactive glasses [11,12] or metallic nanoparticles (NPs) [13,14] .…”

Phase-structure and mechanical properties of isothermally melt-and cold-crystallized poly (L-lactide)

“…Polylactides belong to biodegradable and biocompatible thermoplastics that are interesting candidates for biomedical applications as antibiotic release systems or as regenerative medicine substrates (Lizundia et al, 2012). Polylactides can be used as temporary fixation materials for regeneration of healing tissues.…”