Proliferation of mesenchymal stem cells by graphene-attached soft material structure

This paper aims to clarify the effect of a structure of graphene attached on soft material, as against conventional rigid materials, and the thereby-obtained graphene-based micro/nano-scale surface structures on proliferation of human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The cell culture tests are conducted using graphene-attached poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) substrates having various surface structures and graphene-attached glass substrates as the scaffolds. The fluorescence microscopy observation results demonstrate that the existence of graphene film on PDMS significantly promotes the cellular proliferation and elongation in both cases using two kinds of media, and the rate of cell growth for the graphene-attached PDMS substrates is much larger compared to the graphene-attached glass substrates. The difference in the graphene-based surface structures on PDMS has little influence on the degree of cell growth. It is implied that the number of cells corresponds to the rate of graphene covering the surface of PDMS, suggesting that the cell growth strongly depends on the projected surface area of the graphene film attached on PDMS. [Display omitted] •Stem cell proliferation was significantly promoted by existence of graphene.•Graphene-attached soft material structure showed larger cell growth rate.•Cell growth strongly depended on surface area of attached graphene.