Carboxyl-modified single-wall carbon nanotubes improve bone tissue formation in vitro and repair in an in vivo rat model

Antonio Barrientos-Durán,1,5,* Ellen M Carpenter,2 Nicole I zur Nieden,3 Theodore I Malinin,4 Juan Carlos Rodríguez-Manzaneque,5 Laura P Zanello1,* 1Department of Biochemistry, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA; 2Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA School of Medicine, South Los Angeles, CA, USA; 3Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Stem Cell Center, College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA; 4Tissue Bank, Department of Orthopedics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA; 5Pfizer-University of Granada-Junta de Andalucía Centre for Genomics and Oncological Research (GENYO), Granada, Spain *These authors contributed equally to this workAbstract: The clinical management of bone defects caused by trauma or nonunion fractures remains a challenge in orthopedic practice due to the poor integration and biocompatibility properties of the scaffold or implant material. In the current work, the osteogenic properties of carboxyl-modified single-walled carbon nanotubes (COOH–SWCNTs) were investigated in vivo and in vitro. When human preosteoblasts and murine embryonic stem cells were cultured on coverslips sprayed with COOH–SWCNTs, accelerated osteogenic differentiation was manifested by increased expression of classical bone marker genes and an increase in the secretion of osteocalcin, in addition to prior mineralization of the extracellular matrix. These results predicated COOH–SWCNTs’ use to further promote osteogenic differentiation in vivo. In contrast, both cell lines had difficulties adhering to multi-walled carbon nanotube-based scaffolds, as shown by scanning electron microscopy. While a suspension of SWCNTs caused cytotoxicity in both cell lines at levels >20 µg/mL, these levels were never achieved by release from sprayed SWCNTs, warranting the approa