[NEURONAL DIFFERENTIATION OF PC12 CELL LINE AND MURINE NEURAL STEM CELLS ON THE CARBON NANOTUBES FILMS]

The study of the interaction of nerve cells with specially designed substrates (scaffolds) with different surface characteristics at the nanoscale is a necessary step in the development of methods of stimulation of regeneration of nervous tissues, as well as to create next generation of bioelectronic devices. A promising material for such scaffolds may be carbon nanotubes (CNT) that are flexible films of graphene rolled into nano-sized cylindrical tubes. CNT were produced by chemical deposition from the gas phase. The analysis of the PC12 cells cultivated on quartz glass coated by carbon nanotubes films using electron and light microscopy has shown that CNT stimulate the proliferation and do not inhibit neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells. We have found that it is possible to obtain differentiated neurons from murine neural stem cells on the quartz glasses covered with CNT films. The data obtained indicate that the CNT films produced by chemical deposition from the gas phase onto quartz glass may be used as the electro conductive scaffold to obtain and study the functions of neural cells and possibly of mature neurons.