Development of functionalized multi-walled carbon-nanotube-based alginate hydrogels for enabling biomimetic technologies.

ABSTRACT: Alginate is a hydrogel commonly used for cell culture by ionically crosslinking in the presence of divalent Ca(2+) ions. However these alginate gels are mechanically unstable, not permitting their use as scaffolds to engineer robust biological bone, breast, cardiac or tumor tissues. This issue can be addressed via encapsulation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) serving as a reinforcing phase while being dispersed in a continuous phase of alginate. We hypothesized that adding functionalized MWCNT to alginate, would yield composite gels with distinctively different mechanical, physical and biological characteristics in comparison to alginate alone. Resultant MWCNT-alginate gels were porous, and showed significantly less degradation after 14 days compared to alginate alone. In vitro ce

SUBMITTER: Joddar B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5006027 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature