Abstract: Carbon nanotubes have attracted intensive interests in biomedical research in recent years. In this paper, a novel type of carbon nanotubes material so called nonwoven single walled carbon nanotubes(nonwoven SWNT) with nanotopographic structure and macroscopic volume was used as cell growing scaffold. The morphology and surface chemistry of nonwoven SWNT were observed and characterized by scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) respectively. The cells were cultivated in nonwoven SWNT and in other types of substrate as the control. The cells growth behavior including adhesion, proliferation and cytoskeletal development was investigated by using cell viability assay and confocal observation. The experimental results indicate that nonwoven SWNT exhibited a significant enhancement to the cells adhesion and proliferation in at least 3 weeks. Numerous and well organized cytoskeletal structures were observed when the cells were cultured in nonwoven SWNT. Additionally, an obvious promotional influence of the cells cultivated in nonwoven SWNT scaffold upon the proliferation of those growing in the other kind of substrate through cell-cell communication were found. The results obtained in this work are of significance to in vitro cell amplification in a large scale, tissue regeneration or guided repair, as well as biomedical device application.

Key words: Carbon nanotubes, Cells growth, fibroblast, Tissue regeneration and repair, Cell-cell communication