Surface Passivated Nanocarbon Generates a Phase-Separated Hydrogel Meshwork for Skeletal Muscle Tissue Engineering

Controlling the orientation of the polymeric networks is of significant interest in developing hydrogel-based tissue-engineering platforms. Herein, a model system, smartly passivated carbon nanoparticles (smapCNPs) enforced PNIPAM hydrogel, revealed the role of smapCNPs in the formation of a temporally efficient phase-separated-meshwork (PhaseDMesh). Intriguingly, such a PhaseDMesh was morphologically alternative to the meshwork induced by extracellularly relevant salts like NaCl and KCl. Further investigations on PhaseDMesh demonstrated its ability to support the attachment, growth, and differentiation of myoblasts under simulated salt-imbalanced conditions. Therefore, suitably incorporated smapCNPs could be a functional alternative to extracellular salt ions in generating hydrogel platforms for muscle tissue-engineering.