Cytotoxity Assessment of Gold Nanoparticle-Chitosan Hydrogel Nanocomposite as an Efficient Support for Cell Immobilization: toward Sensing Application

Cell-based biosensors have become a research hotspot in biosensors and bioelectronics fields. The main feature of cell-based biosensors is the immobilization of living cell on the surface of transducers. Different types of polymers which are used as scaffolds for cell growth should be biocompatible and have reactive functional groups for further attachment of biomolecules. In this work, the cell attachment and proliferation on the chitosan hydrogel, chitosan-gelatin and gold nanoparticle–chitosan nanocomposite membranes were investigated. Characterization of the membranes was performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy and Infrared spectroscopy. Cytotoxicity assessment was carried out for all membranes and controlled using MTT assay on HEK293 cells. Cell morphology and viability were assessed to evaluate the cell attachment and proliferation. Regarding cell studies, the findings revealed that chitosan hydrogel and gold nanoparticle–chitosan hydrogel nanocomposite membranes did not induce cytotoxic effects while chitosan-gelatin's effect was very low on cell proliferation. Moreover, the data showed that gold nanoparticle-chitosan hydrogel nanocomposite membrane improved HEK293 attachment and adhesion more than other membranes. Overall, our data demonstrated that gold nanoparticle-chitosan hydrogel nanocomposite membrane constitutes an effective surface for immobilizing cells toward sensing application.