SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PEGylated REDUCED GRAPHENE OXIDE: DETERMINATION OF TOXICITY USING BONE MARROW MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS

Graphene is novel class of carbon based nanomaterial that has several unique physico-chemical characteristics. These properties are being exploited in the biomedical field especially stem cell regenerative therapy. Due to their superior mechanical strength, ability to induce stem cell differentiation and proliferation and antibacterial properties, it is used as a coating for tissue engineered scaffolds. However there is a scarcity of literature on biocompatibility of graphene. The aim of this study is to synthesize PEGylated reduced graphene oxide (PrGO) and assess its biocompatibility in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). PrGO was synthesized by reduction of graphene oxide and characterized using TEM, SAED, AFM, XPS, Raman spectroscopy and FTIR. MSCs were subjected to characterization to evaluate their stemness. The characterized MSCs were exposed to varying concentration of PrGO and MTT assay was carried out. It was found that PEG was successfully coated on to rGO and MSCs maintained their stemness in vitro. Moreover, the PrGO was found to be biocompatible and increase proliferation of MSCs. In conclusion, in-house synthesized PrGO was found to be non toxic when exposed to MSCs. This study can help design PrGO for safe biomedical applications.