Tissue Engineering: Superaligned Carbon Nanotubes Guide Oriented Cell Growth and Promote Electrophysiological Homogeneity for Synthetic Cardiac Tissues (Adv. Mater. 44/2017)

Superaligned carbon-nanotube sheets are explored by Huisheng Peng, Yi-Gang Li, and co-workers in article number 1702713 to culture cardiomyocytes in vitro. In addition to an induced elongated and aligned cell morphology, they provide an efficient extracellular signal-transmission pathway and the reduced electrophysiological heterogeneity required for regular and synchronous cell contractions, which opens up an approach toward the restoration of cardiac structure and function after myocardial infarctions.