New biocompatible and water soluble hybrid materials containing multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as core and hyperbranched polyglycerol (PG) as shell were synthesized successfully. In this work, pristine MWCNTs were opened and functionalized through treatment with acid and polyglycerol was covalently grafted onto their surface by the "grafting from" approach based on in-situ ring-opening polymerization of glycidol. Some short-term In vitro cytotoxicity and hemocompatibility tests were conducted on HT1080 cell line (human Fibrosarcoma), because this epithelial cell line can be one of the first route of entry of the exogenous materials to the vascular system and therefore subsequent interactions with the whole body, in order to investigate their potential application in nanomedicine and to understand the limitation and capability of these material as nanoexcipients in biological systems. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.