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Carbon Nanotube Scaffolds Instruct Human Dendritic Cells: Modulating Immune Responses by Contacts at the Nanoscale
journal contribution
posted on 2013-12-11, 00:00 authored by Alessandra Aldinucci, Antonio Turco, Tiziana Biagioli, Francesca
Maria Toma, Daniele Bani, Daniele Guasti, Cinzia Manuelli, Lisa Rizzetto, Duccio Cavalieri, Luca Massacesi, Tommaso Mello, Denis Scaini, Alberto Bianco, Laura Ballerini, Maurizio Prato, Clara BalleriniNanomaterials interact with cells
and modify their function and
biology. Manufacturing this ability can provide tissue-engineering
scaffolds with nanostructures able to influence tissue growth and
performance. Carbon nanotube compatibility with biomolecules motivated
ongoing interest in the development of biosensors and devices including
such materials. More recently, carbon nanotubes have been applied
in several areas of nerve tissue engineering to study cell behavior
or to instruct the growth and organization of neural networks. To
gather further knowledge on the true potential of future constructs,
in particular to assess their immune-modulatory action, we evaluate
carbon nanotubes interactions with human dendritic cells (DCs). DCs
are professional antigen-presenting cells and their behavior can predict
immune responses triggered by adhesion-dependent signaling. Here,
we incorporate DC cultures to carbon nanotubes and we show by phenotype,
microscopy, and transcriptional analysis that in vitro differentiated
and activated DCs show when interfaced to carbon nanotubes a lower
immunogenic profile.