Effect of carbon nanotube reinforcement on coaxially extruded vascular conduits

Due to its abundant source, good biocompatibility, low price and mild crosslinking process, alginate is an ideal selection for tissue engineering applications. In this work, alginate vascular conduits were fabricated through an extrusion based system. However, due to the inherent weak mechanical property of natural biomaterial, the vascular conduits are not capable of biomimicking natural vascular system. In this paper, multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) were used to reinforce vascular conduits. Influences of MWCNT reinforcement were investigated in detail in mechanical, dehydration, swelling and degradation tests. Perfusion and permeability is another important and unique property of blood vessels. Thus, perfusion experiments were also done to explore the MWCNT reinforcement effect. In addition, cell viability tests were done to prove the biocompatibility of the fabrication system as well as the biocompatibility of MWCNT.