Adhesion of human osteoblast-like cells (Saos-2) to carbon nanotube sheets

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) exhibit excellent cell proliferation properties, which can serve as a scaffold for cell culturing. However, there are only a few reports on adhesion of osteoblast-like cells to a CNT sheet. In this study, we investigated adhesion of osteoblast-like cells to single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) sheets and compared these adhesions with that on a cell culture polystyrene dish by using a cell adhesion test and a scanning electron microscope. The MWNT sheets exhibited faster adhesion of cells at an initial stage than SWNT sheets and cell culture polystyrene dish. The number of attached cells on the MWNT sheets seemed to be greater than on SWNT sheets and cell culture polystyrene. Moreover, the MWNT sheets exhibited both high speed and good capacity for cell adhesion. However, the surface of the MWNT sheets was such that it facilitated cell adherence but hindered the spreading of the attached cells. Interestingly, cell adhesion to CNT sheets was significantly influenced by pre-coating with serum. These results indicate that CNT sheets would play an important role in adsorption of serum proteins, which would consequently facilitate cell adhesion, and that the MWNT sheets have a high cell adhesiveness.