Osteo mineralization of fibrin-decorated graphene oxide

Surface functionalized graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized by coating fibrin on its surface. The fibrin coated graphene oxide (FGO) was characterized for its physiochemical properties and its potential as an osteoinductive material was evaluated using osteoblast like cell line MG-63 and normal cell line NIH 3T3. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has confirmed the coating of fibrin on GO and the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed both spherical and cubical nature of GO nanoparticles and FGO. In in vitro studies, FGO exhibited higher levels of alkaline phosphatase and calcium ion release which confirmed the osteoinductive nature of FGO. The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-Y)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay proved FGO as a biocompatible material. The results have suggested that FGO might be a promising scaffold for bone tissue engineering applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.