The quest for surfaces able to interface cells and modulate their functionality has raised, in recent years, the development of biomaterials endowed with nanocues capable of mimicking the natural extracellular matrix (ECM), especially for tissue regeneration purposes. In this context, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are optimal candidates, showing dimensions and a morphology comparable to fibril ECM constituents. Moreover, when immobilized onto surfaces, they demonstrated outstanding cytocompatibility and ease of chemical modification with ad hoc functionalities. In this study, we interface porcine aortic valve interstitial cells (pVICs) to multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) carpets, investigating the impact of surface nano-morphology on cell properties. The results obtained indicate that CNTs significantly affect cell behavior in terms of cell morphology, cytoskeleton organization, and mechanical properties. We discovered that CNT carpets appear to maintain interfaced pVICs in a sort of "quiescent state", hampering cell activation into a myofibroblasts-like phenotype morphology, a cellular evolution prodromal to Calcific Aortic Valve Disease (CAVD) and characterized by valve interstitial tissue stiffening. We found that this phenomenon is linked to CNTs' ability to alter cell tensional homeostasis, interacting with cell plasma membranes, stabilizing focal adhesions and enabling a better strain distribution within cells. Our discovery contributes to shedding new light on the ECM contribution in modulating cell behavior and will open the door to new criteria for designing nanostructured scaffolds to drive cell functionality for tissue engineering applications.
Keywords: carbon nanotubes; cell membrane; chemical vapor deposition; nanomorphology; valve interstitial cells.