Graphene foam as a biocompatible scaffold for culturing human neurons

Giovanna M D'Abaco; Cristiana Mattei; Babak Nasr; Emma J Hudson; Abdullah J Alshawaf; Gursharan Chana; Ian P Everall; Bryony Nayagam; Mirella Dottori; Efstratios Skafidas

doi:10.1098/rsos.171364

Graphene foam as a biocompatible scaffold for culturing human neurons

R Soc Open Sci. 2018 Mar 7;5(3):171364. doi: 10.1098/rsos.171364. eCollection 2018 Mar.

Authors

Giovanna M D'Abaco¹, Cristiana Mattei², Babak Nasr^{2

3}, Emma J Hudson⁴, Abdullah J Alshawaf^{2

5}, Gursharan Chana², Ian P Everall⁶, Bryony Nayagam⁵, Mirella Dottori^{1

2

7}, Efstratios Skafidas^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Melbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
² Centre for Neural Engineering, Melbourne School of Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
³ ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria 3010, Australia.
⁴ Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
⁵ Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Melbourne and Bionics Institute Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Royal Melbourne Hospital, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
⁷ Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract

In this study, we explore the use of electrically active graphene foam as a scaffold for the culture of human-derived neurons. Human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived cortical neurons fated as either glutamatergic or GABAergic neuronal phenotypes were cultured on graphene foam. We show that graphene foam is biocompatible for the culture of human neurons, capable of supporting cell viability and differentiation of hESC-derived cortical neurons. Based on the findings, we propose that graphene foam represents a suitable scaffold for engineering neuronal tissue and warrants further investigation as a model for understanding neuronal maturation, function and circuit formation.

Keywords: biocompatibility; graphene foam; human cortical neurons; human stem cells.