Surface characterization, biocompatibility and osteogenic differentiation of drop-casted multilayer graphene oxide film towards human wharton’s jelly derived mesenchymal stem cells

ABSTRACT

Graphene oxide (GO) materials have been extensively employed in mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs) research due to its unique nanotopography. Herein, various concentrations of GO flakes were used to fabricate different thickness of multilayer graphene oxide (m-GO) films using a simple drop-casting method and characterized by FTIR and AFM. The biocompatibility of m-GO films in culturing WJ-MSCs was investigated based on cell morphology, cell viability and osteogenic differentiation ability. Importantly, WJ-MSCs adhered and proliferated successfully on the m-GO films (6.25 µg, 12.5 µg and 25 µg) and showed no difference in cell morphology and viability after 5 days culture. Moreover, the WJ-MSCs growth on GO films (6.25 µg, 12.5 µg and 25 µg) enhanced the osteogenic differentiation as compared to the control (glass coverslip). Hence, the simple and inexpensive drop-casted fabrication strategy could provide biocompatible m-GO films to unlock the wider potential of WJ-MCSs in tissue engineering application.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilayer Graphene oxide
• drop-casted self-assembling
• surface characterization
• Wharton’s Jelly mesenchymal stem cell
• cell differentiation

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia through the Transdisciplinary Research Grant Scheme, project no. TRGS001-SG2/2014 and TRGS 0002-SG-2/2014. Special thanks to Dr. Siti Fatimah Simat, Dr. Peik Lin Teoh and their student Miss Warda binti Abdul Ajak for providing the WJMSCs, and Biotechnology Research Institute, UMS for providing the cell culture facilities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) for the provision of Trans Disciplinary Research Grant Scheme [grant number TRGS0002-SG-2/2014 and TRGS0001-SG-2/2014]