3.7. Lower cytotoxic effects of graphene-based scaffolds
The cytotoxicity of fabricated scaffolds was examined using analysis of
lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release in culture media. In this study, LDH
release was taken as a marker of DPSCs membrane damage. At 24 hours of
DPSCs culture, all biomaterials showed a relatively low level of
released LDH (Fig. 6a). However, significant increase in the LDH levels
of DPSCs were observed for uncoated SA (41.65%±7.35) and PLL-coated
GOSA0.5 (34.31%±5.31) scaffolds after 24 hours of cell culture. It is
interesting to note that, after 48 hours of culture, DPSCs toxicity
obtained by LDH assay on graphene-based scaffolds were not significantly
higher than the 2D surface (Fig. 6b). However, DPSCs cultivated onto
pure SA scaffolds displayed the highest levels of cytotoxicity as
compared to 2D control (no scaffold) (\(p<0.0001\)).