Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapy and tissue repair necessitate the use of an ideal clinical biomaterial capable of increasing cell proliferation and differentiation. Recently, MXenes 2D nanomaterials have shown remarkable potential for improving the functional properties of MSCs. In the present study, we elucidated the potential of Ti2CTx MXene as a biomaterial through its primary biological response to human Wharton's Jelly MSCs (hWJ-MSCs). A Ti2CTx nanosheet was synthesized and thoroughly characterized using various microscopic and spectroscopic tools. Our findings suggest that Ti2CTx MXene nanosheet exposure does not alter the morphology of the hWJ-MSCs; however, it causes a dose-dependent (10-200 µg/mL) increase in cell proliferation, and upon using it with conditional media, it also enhanced its tri-lineage differentiation potential, which is a novel finding of our study. A two-fold increase in cell viability was also noticed at the highest tested dose of the nanosheet. The treated hWJ-MSCs showed no sign of cellular stress or toxicity. Taken together, these findings suggest that the Ti2CTx MXene nanosheet is capable of augmenting the proliferation and differentiation potential of the cells.
Keywords: Ti2CTx MXene; cell differentiation; cell proliferation; cell viability; hWJ-MSCs; nanosheets; stemness.