Osteogenic and Chondrogenic Differentiation of rBMSCs on Microsphere-Based Scaffolds Sintered Using Subcritical CO2

Large bone defects remain a major clinical orthopedic challenge. It has been predicted that osteoarthritis will affect over 100 million adults in the United States by the year 2030. Current treatments for repairing bone defects include the use of bone grafts (autologous and allogenic) or implants (polymeric or metallic). These approaches have significant limitations due to insufficient supply, potential disease transmission, rejection, cost and the inability to integrate with the surrounding host tissue. The engineering of bone and cartilage tissue offers new therapeutic strategies to treat bone defects. Several scaffold-based approaches have been used in the past. However, this thesis presents a novel microsphere-based scaffold approach, sintered using subcritical carbon dioxide for osteogenic and chondrogenic tissue regeneration. As a next step in the fabrication of three-dimensional tissue engineered scaffolds, this thesis primarily focused on subcritical carbon dioxide sintering for forming scaffolds, performance of these scaffolds in culture for 6 weeks, and evaluation of two different polymers in osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation. In this investigation, both temperature and pressure (along with time) were necessary to control during the CO2 sintering of PCL (higher temperature and pressure conditions with longer exposure time), as opposed to PLGA, which was sintered at ambient temperature and pressure conditions (for 1 hour exposure). The results obtained showed the feasibility of using these constructs for bone and cartilage tissue regeneration. Biochemical analysis, gene expression and histological staining were used to analyze the data. The mechanical integrity of the constructs was evaluated at the beginning and end of the culture period. The onset of PLGA degradation for the CO2 sintered microspheres in this study appeared at 1.5 weeks which affected chondrogenesis. With osteogenesis, the Osteogenic PLGA group showed greater calcium content value over the Osteogenic PCL group while PCL retained its shape, size and mechanical integrity and had twice as many cells per construct at 6 weeks. In conclusion, this thesis lays a foundation to explore numerous applications using subcritical carbon dioxide sintering for tissue engineering applications

Subcritical CO2 Sintering of Microspheres of Different Polymeric Materials to Fabricate Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

The aim of this study was to use CO2 at sub-critical pressures as a tool to sinter 3D, macroporous, microsphere-based scaffolds for bone and cartilage Tissue Engineering Porous scaffolds composed of ~200 µm microspheres of either poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) or polycaprolactone (PCL) were prepared using dense phase CO2 sintering, which were seeded with rat bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (rBMSCs), and exposed to either osteogenic (PLGA, PCL) or chondrogenic (PLGA) conditions for 6 weeks. Under osteogenic conditions, the PLGA constructs produced over an order of magnitude more calcium than the PCL constructs, whereas the PCL constructs had far superior mechanical and structural integrity (125 times stiffer than PLGA constructs) at week 6, along with twice the cell content of the PLGA constructs. Chondrogenic cell performance was limited in PLGA constructs, perhaps as a result of the polymer degradation rate being too high. The current study represents the first long-term culture of CO2-sintered microsphere-based scaffolds, and has established important thermodynamic differences in sintering between the selected formulations of PLGA and PCL, with the former requiring adjustment of pressure only, and the latter requiring the adjustment of both pressure and temperature. Based on more straightforward sintering conditions and more favorable cell performance, PLGA may be the material of choice for microspheres in a CO2 sintering application, although a different PLGA formulation with the encapsulation of growth factors, extracellular matrix-derived nanoparticles, and/or buffers in the microspheres may be advantageous for achieving a more superior cell performance than observed here

Tailoring of processing parameters for sintering microsphere-based scaffolds with dense phase carbon dioxide

Jeon, J. H., Bhamidipati, M., Sridharan, B., Scurto, A. M., Berkland, C. J. and Detamore, M. S. (2013), Tailoring of processing parameters for sintering microsphere-based scaffolds with dense-phase carbon dioxide. J. Biomed. Mater. Res., 101B: 330–337. doi:10.1002/jbm.b.32843Microsphere-based polymeric tissue-engineered scaffolds offer the advantage of shape-specific constructs with excellent spatiotemporal control and interconnected porous structures. The use of these highly versatile scaffolds requires a method to sinter the discrete microspheres together into a cohesive network, typically with the use of heat or organic solvents. We previously introduced subcritical CO2 as a sintering method for microsphere-based scaffolds; here we further explored the effect of processing parameters. Gaseous or subcritical CO2 was used for making the scaffolds, and various pressures, ratios of lactic acid to glycolic acid in poly(lactic acid-co-glycolic acid), and amounts of NaCl particles were explored. By changing these parameters, scaffolds with different mechanical properties and morphologies were prepared. The preferred range of applied subcritical CO2 was 15–25 bar. Scaffolds prepared at 25 bar with lower lactic acid ratios and without NaCl particles had a higher stiffness, while the constructs made at 15 bar, lower glycolic acid content, and with salt granules had lower elastic moduli. Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells (hUCMSCs) seeded on the scaffolds demonstrated that cells penetrate the scaffolds and remain viable. Overall, the study demonstrated the dependence of the optimal CO2 sintering parameters on the polymer and conditions, and identified desirable CO2 processing parameters to employ in the sintering of microsphere-based scaffolds as a more benign alternative to heat-sintering or solvent-based sintering methods

Multiparametric Assessment of Gold Nanoparticle Cytotoxicity in Cancerous and Healthy Cells: The Role of Size, Shape, and Surface Chemistry

In recent years, we and others have become interested in evaluating the use of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) tags for early cancer detection and in designing new approaches to demonstrate the applicability of this spectroscopic technique in the clinic. SERS-based imaging in particular offers ultra sensitivity up to the single molecule, multiplexing capability, and increased photostability and has been shown to outperform fluorescence. However, to employ SERS tags for early cancer detection, it is important to understand their interaction with cells and determine their cytotoxicity. We have been particularly interested for quite some time in determining if and how gold nanostars, which have been demonstrated as outstanding SERS enhancing substrates, can be safely employed in living systems and translated to the clinic. In this study, we carried out a multiparametric in vitro study to look at the cytotoxicity and cellular uptake of gold nanoparticles on human glioblastoma and human dermal fibroblast cell lines. Cytotoxicity was evaluated by incubating cells with three different morphologies of AuNPs, namely nanospheres, nanorods, and nanostars, each having three different surface chemistries (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), poly­(ethylene glycol) (PEG), and human serum albumin (HSA)). Our results showed that the surface chemistry of the nanoparticles had predominant effects on cytotoxicity, and the morphology and size of the nanoparticles only slightly affected cell viability. CTAB-coated particles were found to be the most toxic to cells, and PEGylated nanostars were determined to be the least toxic. Caspase-3 assay and LDH assay revealed that cell death occurs via apoptosis for cancerous cells and via necrosis for healthy ones. Cellular uptake studies carried out via TEM showed that the particles retain their shape even at long incubation times, which may be beneficial for in vivo SERS-based disease detection. Overall, this study provides valuable information on gold-nanoparticle-induced cytotoxicity that can be leveraged for the development of safe and effective nanoparticle-based therapeutic and diagnostic systems

SERS-Based Quantification of PSMA in Tissue Microarrays Allows Effective Stratification of Patients with Prostate Cancer

Prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a type II membrane protein, is an attractive biomarker that has been validated clinically for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. In this study, we developed surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoprobes for PSMA detection and quantification at the single-cell level on prostate cancer cells. The cells were targeted employing SERS nanoprobes that consisted of gold nanostars functionalized with PSMA aptamer molecules. We were able to quantify picomolar concentrations of soluble PSMA protein and used the resulting calibration curve to estimate the expression of PSMA on the surface of the prostate cancer cell, LNCaP, at the single-cell level. Importantly, we employed these SERS tags to stratify prostate cancer patients by assessing PSMA expression in tissues contained in a prostate tissue microarray. The stratification results clearly correlated PSMA expression to recommended therapy groups, rendering the described method as an effective tool to aid in designing personalized therapeutic protocols. Benchmarking detection sensitivity against immunofluorescence staining and comparing stratification results obtained with the two methods allowed us to validate our novel approach against standard practices. On the basis of these results, we confirm the validity of PSMA as an effective biomarker for prostate cancer patient evaluation and propose SERS-based diagnostic techniques as integrative methods for the assessment of disease stage and the identification of effective therapeutic protocols

A Review on Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has become a powerful tool in chemical, material and life sciences, owing to its intrinsic features (i.e., fingerprint recognition capabilities and high sensitivity) and to the technological advancements that have lowered the cost of the instruments and improved their sensitivity and user-friendliness. We provide an overview of the most significant aspects of SERS. First, the phenomena at the basis of the SERS amplification are described. Then, the measurement of the enhancement and the key factors that determine it (the materials, the hot spots, and the analyte-surface distance) are discussed. A section is dedicated to the analysis of the relevant factors for the choice of the excitation wavelength in a SERS experiment. Several types of substrates and fabrication methods are illustrated, along with some examples of the coupling of SERS with separation and capturing techniques. Finally, a representative selection of applications in the biomedical field, with direct and indirect protocols, is provided. We intentionally avoided using a highly technical language and, whenever possible, intuitive explanations of the involved phenomena are provided, in order to make this review suitable to scientists with different degrees of specialization in this field