Fabrication and characterization of graphene hydrogel via hydrothermal approach as a scaffold for preliminary study of cell growth

Abstract

Background: Three-dimensional assembly of graphene hydrogel is rapidly attracting the interest of researchers because of its wide range of applications in energy storage, electronics, electrochemistry, and waste water treatment. Information on the use of graphene hydrogel for biological purposes is lacking, so we conducted a preliminary study to determine the suitability of graphene hydrogel as a substrate for cell growth, which could potentially be used as building blocks for biomolecules and tissue engineering applications. Methods: A three-dimensional structure of graphene hydrogel was prepared via a simple hydrothermal method using two-dimensional large-area graphene oxide nanosheets as a precursor. Results: The concentration and lateral size of the graphene oxide nanosheets influenced the structure of the hydrogel. With larger-area graphene oxide nanosheets, the graphene hydrogel could be formed at a lower concentration. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the oxide functional groups on the graphene oxide nanosheets were reduced after hydrothermal treatment. The three-dimensional graphene hydrogel matrix was used as a scaffold for proliferation of a MG63 cell line. Conclusion: Guided filopodia protrusions of MG63 on the hydrogel were observed on the third day of cell culture, demonstrating compatibility of the graphene hydrogel structure for bioapplications.

Simple room-temperature preparation of high-yield large-area graphene oxide

“…Biologists show keen interest in graphene, and various studies have been carried out to investigate its biocompatibility with cells (eg, A549 mammalian cell line on graphene and graphene oxide [GO] paper, NIH-3T3 mouse fibroblast cells on graphene-carbon nanotube, L929 mouse fibroblast cells on graphene-and GO-polyaniline and graphene-reinforced chitosan, ARPE-19 retinal pigment epithelium cells on GO-glucose oxidase, A549 human lung carcinoma epithelial cells on GO, nano-reduced GO functionalized noncovalently by amphiphilic PEGylated polymer chains, and nano-GO covalently PEGylated on U87MG human glioblastoma and MCF-7 human breast cancer cell lines). 1 Our recent work has indicated that graphene, in the form of a three-dimensional structure, may be a promising scaffold for cell growth. 1 In addition to biocompatibility investigations, the use of graphene has been extended to bacterial eradication, including Escherichia coli, Staphylococus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Bacillus cereus.…”

Graphene: an emerging material for biological tissue engineering

“…Thus, the processed graphene composites showed acceptable biocompatibility [18]. (ii) Graphene hydrogels [28]. TWEEN: polyoxyethylene sorbitan laurate.…”

“…Thus, graphene hydrogels are frequently used as tissue scaffolding materials. Lim et al [28] made a three dimensional graphene hydrogel using a hydrothermal method. As expected, the porous structure of the hydrogels could be shaped by the stiffness of hydrogel materials.…”

“…Liu et al [40] reported that gelatin wrapped graphene nano-sheets (GNSs) exhibited no cytotoxicity. In acidic environments, the complexes showed fast drug release, SAOS-2, MSCs Graphene, SiO2 Kalbacova et al [19] MCF-7 Layered graphene-artificial peroxidase-laminin Guo et al [20] NIH-3T3 MWCNT, GO, GO/MWCNT-NH2, RGO, RGO/MWCNT-NH2 Ryoo et al [21] hNSCs Graphene on glass Park et al [24] Mouse hippocampal cells Graphene Li et al [25] L929 Covalently linked graphene/poly-ε-caprolactone composite Sayyar et al [26] L929 Graphene/chitosan composite film Fan et al [27] MG63 Graphene hydrogel Lim et al [28] L929 GO/poly(propylene carbonate) nanocomposite foam Yang et al [29] iPSCs Graphene and GO Chen et al [30] hMSCs Graphene and fluorinated graphene Wang et al [31] C2C12 GO-coated and RGO-coated glass Ku and Park [32] hESCs Graphene, MWCNT-graphene hybrid Sebaa et al [33] SH-SY5Y Graphene-coated and no-coated glass Park et al [34] MSCs: mesenchymal stromal cells, hNSCs: human neural stem cells, iPSCs: induced pluripotent SCs, hESCs: human embryonic SCs, TWEEN: polyoxyethylene sorbitan laurate, MWCNT: multi-walled carbon nanotube, GO: graphene oxide, RGO: reduced GO. Fig.…”

Current applications of graphene oxide in nanomedicine

“…13 GO contains a large amount of hydrophilic groups on its edge or basal planes; thus, sheets of small size and lower concentrations should be much more biocompatible. These properties make GO extremely attractive to a large swath of scientists with new applications in the fields of drug delivery, [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] parasitology, 26,27 tissue engineering (TE), [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] antibacterials, [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] cancer therapy, [45][46][47][48][49] sensors [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][6...…”