Carbon Nanotubes in Tissue Engineering

For their peculiar features carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are emerging in many areas of nanotechnology applications. CNT-based technology has been increasingly proposed for biomedical applications, to develop biomolecule nanocarriers, bionanosensors and smart material for tissue engineering purposes. In the following chapter this latter application will be explored, describing why CNTs can be considered an ideal material able to support and boost the growth and the proliferation of many kind of tissues

Chromaticity shift prediction methods for white phosphor-converted LED

W artykule zaprezentowano dwie metody prognozowania przesunięcia punktu chromatyczności Δu’v' zachodzącego w trakcie eksploatacji źródeł LED. Zmierzone w trakcie eksploatacji LEDa rozkłady widmowe mocy promienistej, zostały użyte w metodzie prognozowania bazującej na modelowaniu rozkładu mocy promienistej oraz metodzie regresji nieliniowej opierającej się na wartości współrzędnych położenia punktu chromatyczności u',v'. Zamieszczono porównanie wyników predykcji zmian położenia punktu chromatyczności wybranymi metodami. W celu weryfikacji dokładności wyników uzyskiwanych przy użyciu obydwu modeli przeprowadzono predykcję wartości Δu’v' dla czasu eksploatacji LEDa wynoszącego 9200 h. Wartości otrzymane przy użyciu nieliniowej regresji zmiany u',v' charakteryzują się wyższą dokładnością od uzyskanych modelowaniem rozkładu widmowego LED.The chromaticity shift Δu'v in white LEDs are occurring during the exploitation of this type of light sources. The spectral power distributions measured during LED exploitation can be used for calculation of chromaticity shift. Due to long LED lifetime is important to have mathematical methods which could predict their chromaticity shift. The article presents the method of white LED chromaticity shift prediction. The method was based on nonlinear regression of chromaticity coordinates u'v' by R software. For compaction was taken chromaticity shift prediction by modeling the spectral power distribution of LEDs described in the paper Qian C.; Fan J.; Fan X.; Zhang G.: “Prediction of lumen depreciation and color shift for phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes based on a spectral power distribution”. The chromaticity shift values obtained using non-linear regression of u'v' are given with higher accuracy than obtained by modeling the spectral power distribution of LEDs. It is worth noting that methods of chromaticity shift prediction can be also used to determine the durability of LED’s luminous flux, color rendering and efficacy

Characterization of carbon nanotube (MWCNT) containing P(3HB)/bioactive glass composites for tissue engineering applications

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P(3HB)) composites with bioactive glass particles and multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were prepared and used to identify whether the electrical properties of MWCNTs can be used to detect the bioactivity of P(3HB)/bioactive glass composites. The presence of MWCNTs (2–7 wt.%) increased the surface roughness of the composites. The presence of MWCNTs in low quantity enhanced MG-63 osteoblast-like cell attachment and proliferation compared to composites with higher concentration of MWCNTs. Current–voltage measurements demonstrated that the electrical resistance of the composites containing bioactive glass particles decreased over a 45-day immersion period in SBF, whereas composites without bioactive glass showed no significant change over the same period

Growth and proliferation of human embryonic stem cells on fully synthetic scaffolds based on carbon nanotubes

Here we show an industrially scalable and inexpensive method of fabricating entirely synthetic, nonxenogeneic carbon nanotube-based scaffolds by vacuum filtration for the culture of human embryonic stem cells. We show that controlled exposure of carbon nanotubes to sonication and the amount of energy delivered to the dispersion directly impacts the surface properties, allowing for control over the nanotopography of the resulting carbon nanotube films, which in turn has demonstrable effects upon in vitro human embryonic stem cells cultures. By altering the nanotube processing conditions before film fabrication, it is possible to influence cell adherence, proliferation and colony morphology. Such a tunable surface with capabilities of influencing stem cell behaviors, combined with the ability to slow or speed population doubling times, will provide crucial solutions for achieving applications envisioned by stem cell biologists to assist future industrial and clinical implementation of human embryonic stem cells