Cytotoxicity assessment of a gold nanoparticle-chitosan nanocomposite as an efficient support for cell immobilization: comparison with chitosan hydrogel and chitosan-gelatin

چکیده مقاله

Cell-based biosensors have become a research hotspot in the biosensors and bioelectronics fields.
The main feature of cell-based biosensors is immobilization of living cells on the surface of transducers. Different
types of polymers which are used as scaffolds for cell growth should be biocompatible and should have reactive
functional groups for further attachment of biomolecules. In this work, cell attachment and proliferation
on chitosan hydrogel, chitosan-gelatin and gold nanoparticle-chitosan nanocomposite membranes was studied.
Characterization of the membranes was performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Cytotoxicity assessment on HEK293 cells was carried out for all membranes
using the MTT assay. Cell morphology and viability were assessed to evaluate cell attachment and proliferation.
Regarding cell studies, the findings revealed that none of the membranes induced cytotoxic effects.
However, the data showed that gold nanoparticle nanocomposite membranes improved HEK293 attachment and
adhesion more than other membranes, indicating that it provides an effective surface for immobilizing cells for
sensing applications.