Journal: Scientific Reports

Article Title: Bio-inspired Hybrid Carbon Nanotube Muscles

doi: 10.1038/srep26687

Figure Lengend Snippet: ( a ) Schematic illustration of the cell culture protocol. (Left) C2C12 myoblasts seeded on a PEDOT/MWCNT sheet. (Middle) 2 days of cell culture. (Right) Aligned myotubes after 7 days of differentiation. ( b ) Scanning ion-conductance microscope (SICM) 3D image of the myotubes on the PEDOT/MWCNT sheet. The scan area is 40 × 40 μm. ( c ) Myotube width and height profiles were obtained from the cross-sectional line profile shown in ( b ). Each letter on the line profile corresponds to the same letter on the cross-section of ( b ). ( d ) The average myotube length and width were obtained from confocal microscope images of MyHC + myotubes. ( e – g ) Confocal microscope images of MyHC + myotubes grown on a PEDOT/MWCNT sheet. Scale bar = 50 μm. ( h ) Myotube alignment ratio analyzed by constructing an angular spread distribution histogram (n = 200). 93% of the myotubes were positioned in the range of −10° to +10°.

Article Snippet: The SICM probe glass nano-pipette (inner diameter of ~100 nm) was fabricated from borosilicate glass tubing (Warner Instruments) using a CO 2 -laser-based micropipette puller (P-2000, Sutter Instruments, CA) and filled with PBS electrolyte solution.

Techniques: Cell Culture, Microscopy