RIVERSIDE, Calif., March 15 (UPI) -- University of California-Riverside scientists say they've determined bone cells can grow and proliferate on a scaffold of carbon nanotubes.
Lead author, Laura Zanello, an assistant professor of biochemistry, along with Chemistry Professor Robert Haddon and graduate students Bin Zhao and Hui Hu, say their study builds on previous research that showed carbon nanotubes could be chemically compatible with bone cells.
"In the past scientists have been plagued by toxicity issues when combining carbon nanotubes with living cells," Zanello said. "So we have been looking for the most pure nanotubes we could get to reduce the presence of heavy metals that are frequently introduced in the manufacturing process."
She credits Zhao, now a postgraduate researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with manufacturing highly pure nanotubes for the research.
The study is detailed in the March 8 edition of the journal Nano Letters.
