Cardiac tissue engineering holds great potential in regenerating functional cardiac tissues for various applications. The major strategy is to design scaffolds recapitulating the native cardiac microenvironment to enhance cell and tissue functionalities. Among various biomaterial systems, nanofibrous matrices with aligned morphologies and enhanced conductivity incline to induce the formation of oriented engineered cardiac tissues with enhanced functionalities. The challenge is to functionalize the scaffolds with conductive additives without influencing their biocompatibility. In this study, we developed a fully aqueous process for the fabrication of conductive carbon nanotube/silk fibroin (CNT/silk) electrospun scaffolds. The carbon nanotubes are well dispersed within the nanofibers, providing the scaffolds with enhanced conductivity and excellent biocompatibility for the culture of neonatal rat cardiomyocytes with improved cell spreading and enhanced expression of cardiac-specific proteins. Moreover, the aligned CNT/silk fibroin composite scaffolds exhibit abilities to guide the oriented organization of cardiac tissues and the biomimicking distribution of sarcomeres and gap junctions. The findings demonstrate the great potential of the CNT/silk scaffolds prepared through this aqueous processing method in supporting the formation of cardiac tissues with enhanced functionalities.

中文翻译：

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碳纳米管/丝素蛋白电纺丝基质的无溶剂制备，可增强心肌细胞的功能

心脏组织工程学在各种功能性心脏组织再生方面具有巨大潜力。主要策略是设计可概括天然心脏微环境的支架，以增强细胞和组织功能。在各种生物材料系统中，具有对齐的形态和增强的电导率的纳米纤维基质倾向于诱导具有增强功能的定向工程化心脏组织的形成。挑战在于用导电添加剂对支架进行功能化而不影响它们的生物相容性。在这项研究中，我们开发了一种完全水性的工艺来制造导电碳纳米管/丝素蛋白（CNT /丝）电纺支架。碳纳米管很好地分散在纳米纤维中，提供了具有增强的电导率和优异的生物相容性的支架，用于培养新生大鼠心肌细胞，并具有改善的细胞扩散和增强的心脏特异性蛋白表达。此外，对齐的CNT /丝素蛋白复合支架表现出引导心脏组织的定向组织以及肉瘤和间隙连接的生物模拟分布的能力。这些发现证明了通过这种水处理方法制备的CNT /丝支架在支持功能增强的心脏组织形成方面的巨大潜力。对齐的CNT /丝素蛋白复合支架具有引导心肌组织定向组织以及肉瘤和间隙连接的生物模拟分布的能力。这些发现证明了通过这种水处理方法制备的CNT /丝支架在支持具有增强功能的心脏组织形成方面的巨大潜力。对齐的CNT /丝素蛋白复合支架具有引导心肌组织定向组织以及肉瘤和间隙连接的生物模拟分布的能力。这些发现证明了通过这种水处理方法制备的CNT /丝支架在支持具有增强功能的心脏组织形成方面的巨大潜力。