Biomolecular engineering最新文献

The present work reports results of studies of corrosion resistance of pure nano-Ti-Grade 2 after hydrostatic extrusion. The grain size of the examined samples was below 90 nm. Surface analytical technique including AES combined with Ar⁺ ion sputtering, were used to investigate the chemical composition and thicknesses of the oxides formed on nano-Ti. It has been found that the grain size of the titanium substrate did not influence the thickness of oxide formed on the titanium. The thickness of the oxide observed on the titanium samples before and after hydrostatic extrusion was about 6 nm. Tests carried out in a NaCl solution revealed a slightly lower corrosion resistance of nano-Ti in comparison with the titanium with micrometric grain size.

A typical ionic polymer–metal composite consists of a thin perfluorinated ionomer membrane and noble metal electrodes plated on both surfaces. It undergoes a large bending motion when an electric field is applied hence exhibits deformation by a certain amount of cation. With proper arrangement and package, a great number of “smart devices” are anticipated. In this study, a solution-cast route was used to prepare the electro-active polymer membrane and platinum electrodes were fabricated onto the membrane through electro-less plating. The ionic polymer used is the commercial Nafion™, the perfluoro-sulfonated ionomer membrane, developed by DuPont Co. Nafion™ membrane was cast by the solution-casting route and then loaded with different weights simultaneously. The optimized processing conditions, membrane properties and electrodes behaviors were investigated. The results of shift in WAXD peaks showed that weights delineated the crystallinity of the solution-cast membranes. The number and size of the crystalline domains of solution-cast membrane decrease as studied by SAXS. The Young's modulus of solution-cast membrane decreases as increasing weight because of the loss of crystallinity (180–140 MPa). A finely dispersed platinum particle deeper and gradient penetrating within the near-boundary region with a smaller average particle size and more uniform distribution could be obtained through a reverse electro-less plating. Its surface roughness is 3 nm comparing to 52 nm of a typical process. But its surface resistance is too high (3.5 Ω) to activate the bending motion. To solve this problem, we coated the second Pt electrodes by a typical electro-less plating, and the resistance decreased to 0.7 Ω. The results depicted that the fabricated IPMC shows longer bending lifetime than typical IPMC. In a 0.09% NaCl solution, the device was able to vibrate for 8 h under a 5 V, 0.1 Hz actuation.

For mathematical modelling of the biomaterial-cell contact, it is necessary to find both parameters characterizing physical and chemical properties of the material surface and also such describing the reaction of the adhering cells. Only those material and cell parameters that correlate with each other are applicable to model this contact mathematically. Only few papers are dealing with this special problem.

The aim of this paper is to present results of physical/chemical and biological investigations made on differently modified rough titanium implant surfaces in order to find out only the correlating parameters. Furthermore we discuss several ways to apply statistical methods to the correlation problem.

Only few ones of all investigated parameters both on material and on cellular side were applicable for correlation. For example we found in our studies that fractal structure parameter topothesy has influence on the spreading behaviour of the osteoblastic cells. However the value of the correlation coefficient and its statistical significance heavily depend on the method of averaging the available data. Especially the biological data (spreading area) were afflicted with relatively high error up to 30%. Averaging of this data masks the true facts. That is why the correlation coefficient considerably decreases if the biological parameters are not averaged. On the other hand, the statistical reliability increases due to the higher number of investigated cases.

Critical error discussion is necessary in statistical correlation between material and biological parameters. Often the results are heavily influenced by the statistical handling of data, especially if only few data are available. May be that new unconventional methods like bootstrap method can show a way out of this dilemma.

We have performed the molecular dynamics simulations for the free cholesterol cluster and the same cluster located near the carbon nanotube. We have found that the cholesterol molecules quite evenly cover the surface of single walled armchair (10, 10) carbon nanotube, forming the molecular layer. Moreover, the characteristic alignment of cholesterol molecules within the layer (along the nanotube) is observed. The comparison of the structural and dynamical observable characterizing cholesterol molecule is presented and discussed, both for the cluster with and without the presence of the nanotube.

Excessive of homocysteine in the human body is recently considered as a factor increasing the risk of the cardiovascular system diseases. The nanosystem composed of finite number of homocysteine molecules (n = 20, 50 and 80) have been studied by MD technique. Several physical quantities of homocysteine nanosystem have been calculated as a function of temperature and a number of molecules in homocysteine cluster. The total dipole moment autocorrelation function and dielectric loss of the cluster have been also obtained.

People suffering from pain due to osteoarthritic or rheumatoidal changes in the joints are still waiting for a better treatment. Although some studies have achieved success in repairing small cartilage defects, there is no widely accepted method for complete repair of osteochondral defects. Also joint replacements have not yet succeeded in replacing of natural cartilage without complications. Therefore, there is room for a new medical approach, which outperforms currently used methods.

The aim of this study is to show potential of using a tissue engineering approach for regeneration of osteochondral defects. The critical review of currently used methods for treatment of osteochondral defects is also provided.

In this study, two kinds of hybrid scaffolds developed in Hutmacher's group have been analysed. The first biphasic scaffold consists of fibrin and PCL. The fibrin serves as a cartilage phase while the porous PCL scaffold acts as the subchondral phase. The second system comprises of PCL and PCL-TCP. The scaffolds were fabricated via fused deposition modeling which is a rapid prototyping system. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal cells were isolated from New Zealand White rabbits, cultured in vitro and seeded into the scaffolds. Bone regenerations of the subchondral phases were quantified via micro CT analysis and the results demonstrated the potential of the porous PCL and PCL-TCP scaffolds in promoting bone healing. Fibrin was found to be lacking in this aspect as it degrades rapidly. On the other hand, the porous PCL scaffold degrades slowly hence it provides an effective mechanical support.

This study shows that in the field of cartilage repair or replacement, tissue engineering may have big impact in the future. In vivo bone and cartilage engineering via combining a novel composite, biphasic scaffold technology with a MSC has been shown a high potential in the knee defect regeneration in the animal models. However, the clinical application of tissue engineering requires the future research work due to several problems, such as scaffold design, cellular delivery and implantation strategies.

Nanoparticles have become important in many applications. It is essential to be able to control the particle size because the properties of nanoparticles change dramatically with particle size.

An efficient way to generate nanoparticles is via aerosol processes. In this study we used Liquid Flame Spray consisting of liquid precursor droplets sprayed into a high-speed hydrogen/oxygen flame where they evaporate, vapours react and nucleate to form titania nanoparticles. Using flame methods, also dopants and sensitizers can easily be introduced in order to, e.g. improve the photocatalytic activity of the nanomaterial. To obtain a practical guideline in order to tailor the final nanoparticle size in the process, we have systematically studied the effects of different process parameters on the particle size of titania. Titania is used, e.g. as a photocatalyst, and then both particle size and crystal structure are important when looking at the efficiency. In this work, the generated nanoparticle size has been measured by aerosol instrumentation and the particle morphology has been verified with transmission electron microscopy. In Liquid Flame Spray method, there are several adjustable parameters such as precursor feed rate into the flame; concentration of the precursor; precursor material itself as well as solvent used in the precursor; mass flow of combustion gases and also the mechanical design of the torch used. We used metal organic based titanium precursors in alcohol solvents, predominantly ethanol and 2-propanol. Large differences in particle production between the precursors were found. Differences could also be seen for various solvents. As for precursor feed in the flame, the more mass is introduced the larger the nanoparticles are, i.e. precursor concentration and precursor feed rate have an impact on particle size. A similar phenomenon can be discovered for the combustion gas flow rates. Torch design also plays an important role in controlling the particle size.

Maltodextrin (MX) was fixed onto PVDF membranes in order to create a drug delivery Guided Tissue Regeneration (GTR) device with controlled drug delivery properties. PVDF microporous membranes were treated by a mixture of MX and citric acid, resulting to an 18 wt% increase of the supports. MX grafted membrane could capture 103 mg/g chlorhexidin digluconate (DigCHX) instead of 1 mg/g for a virgin membrane. A neutralization step was performed before the biological tests. Viability tests confirmed the non-toxicity of the MX polymer coating after neutralisation. In vitro release test in human plasma, and microbiological tests showed that membranes grafted with MX were more performing compared to virgin and β-CD grafted membranes. The antimicrobial activity was effective during more than 72 h.

In order to prevent the increasing frequency of per-operative infections, bioceramics can be loaded with anti-bacterial agents, which will release with respect to their chemical characteristics. A novel hydroxyapatite (HA) was elaborated with specific internal porosities for using as a bone-bioactive antibiotic (ATB) carrier material. UV spectrophotometry and bacteria inhibition tests were performed for testing the ATB adsorption and the microbiological effectiveness after loading with different antibiotics. The impregnation time, ATB impregnating concentration, impregnation condition and other factors, which might influence the ATB loading effect, were studied by exposure to different releasing solvents and different pathogenic bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli. It clearly showed that the facility of ATB loading on this porous HA is even possible just under simple non-vacuum impregnation conditions in a not-so-long impregnating interval. The results also showed that, for all three types of ATB (vancomycin, ciprofloxacin and gentamicin), adsorbed amount on the micro-porous HA were hugely higher than that on dense HA. The micro-porosity of test HA had also significantly prolonged the release time of antibiotics even under mimic physiological conditions. Furthermore, it also has primarily proved by a pilot test that the antibacterial efficiency of crude micro-porous HA could be further significantly improved by other methods of functionalization such as cold plasma technique.

Biomimetic apatite coatings were obtained by soaking chemically treated titanium in SBF with different HCO₃⁻ concentration. XRD, FTIR and Raman analyses were used to characterize phase composition and degree of carbonate substitution. The microstructure, elemental composition and preferred alignment of biomimetically precipitated crystallites were characterized by cross-sectional TEM analyses. According to XRD, the phase composition of precipitated coatings on chemically pre-treated titanium after exposure to SBF was identified as hydroxy carbonated apatite (HCA). A preferred c-axis orientation of the deposited crystals can be supposed due to the high relative peak intensities of the (0 0 2) diffraction line at 2θ = 26° compared to the 100% intensity peak of the (2 1 1) plane at 2θ = 32°. The crystallite size in direction of the c-axis of HCA decreased from 26 nm in SBF5 with a HCO₃⁻ concentration of 5 mmol/l to 19 nm in SBF27 with a HCO₃⁻ concentration of 27 mmol/l. Cross-sectional TEM analyses revealed that all distances correspond exactly to the hexagonal structure of hydroxyapatite. The HCO₃⁻ content in SBF also influences the composition of precipitated calcium phosphates. Biomimetic apatites were shown to have a general formula of Ca_10−x−yMg_y(HPO₄)_x−z(CO₃)_z(PO₄)_6−x(OH)_2−x−w(CO₃)_w/2. According to FTIR and Raman analyses, it can be supposed that as long as the HCO₃⁻ concentration in the testing solutions is below 20 mmol/l, only B-type HCA (0 < z < 1; $w=0$) precipitates. At higher HCO₃⁻ concentration, it can be assumed that AB-type HCA (z = 1;$0<w<1$) is formed.