Reduced Graphene Oxide‐GelMA Hybrid Hydrogels as Scaffolds for Cardiac Tissue Engineering |
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| Authors: | Su Ryon Shin Claudio Zihlmann Mohsen Akbari Pribpandao Assawes Louis Cheung Kaizhen Zhang Vijayan Manoharan Yu Shrike Zhang Mehmet Yüksekkaya Kai‐tak Wan Mehdi Nikkhah Mehmet R. Dokmeci Xiaowu Tang Ali Khademhosseini |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Biomaterials Innovation Research Center, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA;2. Harvard‐MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA;3. Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA;4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada;5. Department of Chemistry and Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada;6. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA;7. Faculty of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering Department, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey;8. School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA;9. Department of Physics, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia;10. College of Animal Bioscience and Technology, Department of Bioindustrial Technologies, Konkuk University, Hwayang‐dong, Kwangjin‐gu, Seoul, South Korea |
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| Abstract: | Biomaterials currently used in cardiac tissue engineering have certain limitations, such as lack of electrical conductivity and appropriate mechanical properties, which are two parameters playing a key role in regulating cardiac cell behavior. Here, the myocardial tissue constructs are engineered based on reduced graphene oxide (rGO)‐incorporated gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hybrid hydrogels. The incorporation of rGO into the GelMA matrix significantly enhances the electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of the material. Moreover, cells cultured on composite rGO‐GelMA scaffolds exhibit better biological activities such as cell viability, proliferation, and maturation compared to ones cultured on GelMA hydrogels. Cardiomyocytes show stronger contractility and faster spontaneous beating rate on rGO‐GelMA hydrogel sheets compared to those on pristine GelMA hydrogels, as well as GO‐GelMA hydrogel sheets with similar mechanical property and particle concentration. Our strategy of integrating rGO within a biocompatible hydrogel is expected to be broadly applicable for future biomaterial designs to improve tissue engineering outcomes. The engineered cardiac tissue constructs using rGO incorporated hybrid hydrogels can potentially provide high‐fidelity tissue models for drug studies and the investigations of cardiac tissue development and/or disease processes in vitro. |
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| Keywords: | bioactuator cardiac tissue engineering gelatin hydrogel reduced graphene oxide |
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