Abstract
Nerve regeneration through cell electrostimulation will become a key finding in regenerative medicine. The procedure will provide a wide range of applications, especially in body reconstruction, artificial organs or nerve prostheses. Other than in the case of the conventional polystyrene substrates, the application of the current flow in the cell substrate stimulates the cell growth and mobility, supports the synaptogenesis, and increases the average length of neuron nerve fibres. The indirect electrical cell stimulation requires a non-toxic, highly electrically conductive substrate material enabling a precise and effective cell electrostimulation. The process can be successfully performed with the use of the graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs)—the structures of high conductivity and biocompatible with mammalian NE-4C neural stem cells used in the study. One of the complications with the production of inks using GNPs is their agglomeration, which significantly hampers the quality of the produced coatings. Therefore, the selection of the proper amount of the surfactant is paramount to achieve a high-quality substrate. The article presents the results of the research into the material manufacturing used in the cell electrostimulation. The outcomes allow for the establishment of the proper amount of the surfactant to achieve both high conductivity and quality of the coating, which could be used not only in electronics, but also—due to its biocompatibility—fruitfully applied to the cell electrostimulation.
Highlights
The possibility to differentiate stem cells from other cells, especially nerve cells, is attracting great attention within academia [1,2,3]
The graphene nanoplatelets manufactured by XG Science (XG Science, Inc.; Lansing, MI, USA) (GNP M25) with average particle dimensions of 20–25 μm and a thickness of 19 sheets of graphene were used as the material of the functional phase [26]
The results for the inks with various contents of the AKM-0531 surfactant from the MALIALIM series are in the range of 11–50 Ω/
Summary
The possibility to differentiate stem cells from other cells, especially nerve cells, is attracting great attention within academia [1,2,3]. Due to the appropriate use of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro, cells with a neural phenotype are obtainable [1]. Owning to the appropriately selected cell stimulation and its parameters in the in vitro culture, it is conceivable to initiate the process of cell differentiation into neural cells, and to control their viability and proliferation [4,5,6,7,8,9]. The tissue engineering to stimulate the growth and differentiation of cells uses cell scaffolds and electrostimulation, using both with direct and alternating electric currents [10,11,12]. As the substrates created with the graphene materials are rough and stiff, the sufficient adhesion of cells to the scaffold is ensured [5,6,13,14]
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