Cytocompatible poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid: Carbon nanofiber composite analysis for cardiovascular applications

The objective of the present research was to determine cardiomyocyte function on poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (50:50 wt. % (PLA:PGA); PLGA) with greater amounts of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) for myocardial tissue engineering applications. The addition of CNFs could increase conductivity and strength of pure PLGA. For this reason, different PLGA:CNF ratios (100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, 0:100 wt.%) were created and conductivity and cytocompatibility properties with human cardiomyocytes were determined. Results showed that PLGA:CNF materials were conductive and that conductivity increased as greater amounts of CNFs were added to PLGA, from 0 S.m^-1 for 100:0 (pure PLGA) to 5.5×10^-3 S.m^-1 for 0:100 (pure CNFs). Furthermore, results indicated that cardiomyocyte density up to 5 days, increased with greater amounts of CNFs in PLGA (up to 25:75, PLGA:CNFs). Thus, this study provided an alternative conductive scaffold using nanotechnology which should be further explored for cardiovascular applications.