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The interactions of temperature-responsive copolymers of sodium 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonate (AMPS) and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) with a cationic surfactant, dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride (DTAC), have been studied. The content of AMPS in the copolymers ranged from 1.1 to 9.6 mol%. The surface activity was higher for the polymers with lower AMPS content. It was found that DTAC undergoes association with the polymer chain, forming mixed polymer–surfactant micelles. The values of cac for the polymers were found in fluorescence studies using pyrene as the fluorescent probe. They were in the range 0.9–3.6×10−3 M and were lower for polymers with higher AMPS content. An increase in DTAC concentration up to about its cmc results in a decrease of the LCST (lower critical solution temperature) of the copolymers, while further increase above the cmc results in an increase of the LCST. The minimum value of LCST in the presence of the surfactant is lower than the LCST of NIPAM homopolymer. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

When designing materials for tissue engineering applications various parameters characterizing both materials and tissue have to be taken into account. The characteristics such as chemistry, elasticity, wettability, roughness and morphology of the substrate’s surface have significant impact on cell behavior. The paper presents biopolymer (collagen/chitosan) based hydrogel materials with tunable elasticity and surface properties useful for fabrication of substrates for cell culture. Using simple chemical approach involving the change in concentration of crosslinking agent (genipin) and composition of the reaction mixture the hydrogels characterized with various features were obtained. Detailed analysis of morphology, topography, roughness and elasticity of surface performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and rheological measurements has shown that the topographical aspects and roughness parameter can be modulated in nanoscale regime (13–47 nm). Substrate’s elasticity could be modified in a wide range (0.2–270 kPa). Biological in vitro studies on fibroblasts behavior revealed that the materials prepared provide satisfactory conditions for cell culture, ensuring their high viability, good adhesion and normal morphology. The genipin crosslinked collagen-chitosan hydrogels characterized by denser fiber structure, higher elasticity and lower surface roughness are the most attractive supports for fibroblasts cultivation. The results obtained indicate that the properties of the materials developed can be easily tailored to the needs of the given type of cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) system based on functionalized CdTe-guanine and AuNPs-cytosine bioconjugates for the model nucleobase - guanine detection was developed. Thioglycolic acid coated cadmium telluride quantum dots (QDs) conjugated with guanine and sodium 3-mercapto-1-propanesulfonate stabilized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) capped by cytosine were obtained and fully characterized. Successful formation of the materials was confirmed by UV–Vis, fluorescence and FTIR spectroscopies. Composition of the conjugates was also characterized with elemental analysis and XPS. By employing a guanine-cytosine interaction the bonding between these complementary nucleobases attached to the nanoparticles leads to the formation of QDs-guanine-AuNPs-cytosine assembly, with the size about 7 nm as demonstrated using atomic force microscopy. That enables an effective FRET from functionalized QDs to AuNPs since both, the required distance and the spectral characteristics of donor-acceptor pair were secured. However, it was shown that in the presence of guanine-model molecule which inhibits the interaction between conjugated QDs and AuNPs the FRET is efficiently hampered. Thus monitoring the changes in the restoring fluorescence signal allows to assay the free guanine concentration. Importantly, we have demonstrated the sensitivity and selectivity of the obtained FRET-based system towards guanine. Moreover, in order to confirm the feasibility of the proposed material for nucleobase detection in the real biological samples the developed nanoparticles were also evaluated under simulated urine conditions. The presented strategy of FRET-based conjugated system preparation might be easily used for the development of another nucleobases selective detection and thus opens many possibilities for the determination of biomolecules in the real samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) have found application in modifying material surfaces to make them adhesive or non-adhesive for animal cells. However, PEMs made of strong polyelectrolytes are not fully recognized in the literature. This study focuses on the interplay between the properties of PEM assembled from strong polyelectrolytes and cell adhesion and motility. Strong polycations (with quaternary ammonium groups) and a polyanion (with sulfonate groups) were obtained by modification of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). Two types of multilayer films were assembled from these PAH derivatives and used to investigate the behavior of human skin fibroblasts (HSFs). The effect of surface charge, hydrophobicity, and film thickness on adhesion of HSFs in a serum-containing medium was studied with immunofluorescence microscopy. The results showed that adhesion of HSFs was strongly depended on the chemical functions of the terminal layer, whereas the wettability was not important. The surface of PEM can be strongly cytophobic (the quaternary ammonium terminal groups) or strongly cytophilic (the sulfonate terminal groups). Finally, the motile activity of HSFs seeded on glass coated with a varying number of polymer layers was investigated. It was demonstrated using an in vitro model that coating the substrate with only two polymer layers can considerably increase the average speed of HSFs movement and stimulate cell migration into the wound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we have analyzed the influence of various factors on the transverse relaxation times T 2 of water protons in suspension of magnetic nanoparticles. For that purpose we developed a full molecular dynamics force field which includes the effects of dispersion interactions between magnetic nanoparticles and water molecules, electrostatic interactions between charged nanoparticles and magnetic dipole–dipole and dipole–external field interactions. We also accounted for the magnetization reversal within the nanoparticles body frames due to finite magnetic anisotropy barriers. The force field together with the Langevin dynamics imposed on water molecules and the nanoparticles allowed us to monitor the dephasing of water protons in real time. Thus, we were able to determine the T 2 relaxation times including the effects of the adsorption of water on the nanoparticles’ surfaces, thermal fluctuations of the orientation of nanoparticles’ magnetizations as well as the effects of the core–shell architecture of nanoparticles and their agglomeration into clusters. We found that there exists an optimal cluster size for which T 2 is minimized and that the retardation of water molecules motion, due to adsorption on the nanoparticles surfaces, has some effect in the measured T 2 times. The typical strengths of the external magnetic fields in MRI are enough to keep the magnetizations fixed along the field direction, however, in the case of low magnetic fields, we observed significant enhancement of T 2 due to thermal fluctuations of the orientations of magnetizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]