Abstract
Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) has developed rapidly, but a great challenge remains in finding practical scaffold materials for the construction of engineered cardiac tissues. Carbon nanohorns (CNHs) may be a potential candidate due to their special structure and properties. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of CNHs on the biological behavior of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) for CTE applications. CNHs were incorporated into collagen to form growth substrates for NRVMs. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations demonstrated that CNHs exhibited a good affinity to collagen. Moreover, it was found that CNH-embedded substrates enhanced adhesion and proliferation of NRVMs. Immunohistochemical staining, western blot analysis, and intracellular calcium transient measurements indicated that the addition of CNHs significantly increased the expression and maturation of electrical and mechanical proteins (connexin-43 and N-cadherin). Bromodeoxyuridine staining and a Cell Counting Kit-8 assay showed that CNHs have the ability to inhibit the proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts. These findings suggest that CNHs can have a valuable effect on the construction of engineered cardiac tissues and may be a promising scaffold for CTE.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-016-1464-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Acute myocardial infarction can lead to sudden anoxia and ischemic injury in cardiomyocytes, impairing ventricular function and leading to heart failure at the end stage
We found that carbon nanohorn-collagen (CNH-Col) substrates can promote differentiation and maturation of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) and can inhibit the viability and proliferation of cardiac fibroblast and may further reduce cardiac remolding
Small agglomerates containing only a few Carbon nanohorns (CNHs) aggregates were observed by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the CNH aggregates are coated with collagen molecules (Fig. 1a), which reveals the good affinity between the CNHs and collagen
Summary
Acute myocardial infarction can lead to sudden anoxia and ischemic injury in cardiomyocytes, impairing ventricular function and leading to heart failure at the end stage. Cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) compared with traditional heart transplantation will be a promising therapeutic strategy for end-stage heart failure in the future, and this approach is developing rapidly. Collagen and other natural biomaterials in the extracellular matrix have roles as structural proteins and have a close affinity to cells, but they do not do well in cell retention [2, 3]. Artificial biomaterials, nanomaterials due to their special structures and electrical properties, have attracted significant research interest in the construction of engineered cardiac tissue. Carbon nanohorn (CNH) is a horn-shaped graphitic tubule with a diameter of 2 to 5 nm. Thousands of CNHs usually form a spherical structure with a diameter of 50 to 100 nm. In contrast to other carbon nanomaterials, no metal catalyst is used in the CNH synthesis processes. Metal catalysts are the major impurity inducing biological toxicity through an oxidative stress response
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