A specific flagellum beating mode for inducing fusion in mammalian fertilization and kinetics of sperm internalization.

The salient phases of fertilization are gamete adhesion, membrane fusion, and internalization of the spermatozoon into the oocyte but the precise timeline and the molecular, membrane and cell mechanisms underlying these highly dynamical events are far from being established. The high motility of the spermatozoa and the unpredictable location of sperm/egg fusion dramatically hinder the use of real time imaging optical techniques that should directly provide the dynamics of cell events. Using an approach based on microfluidics technology, the sperm/egg interaction zone was imaged with the best front view, and the timeline of the fertilization events was established with an unparalleled temporal accuracy from the onset of gamete contact to full sperm DNA decondensation. It reveals that a key element of the adhesion phase to initiate fusion is the oscillatory motion of the sperm head on the oocyte plasma membrane generated by a specific flagellum-beating mode. It also shows that the incorporation of the spermatozoon head is a two steps process that includes simultaneous diving, tilt, and plasma membrane degradation of the sperm head into the oocyte and subsequent DNA decondensation.

Towards an improved anti-HIV activity of NRTI via metal-organic frameworks nanoparticles.

Nanoscale mesoporous iron carboxylates metal-organic frameworks (nanoMOFs) have recently emerged as promising platforms for drug delivery, showing biodegradability, biocompatibility and important loading capability of challenging highly water-soluble drugs such as azidothymidine tryphosphate (AZT-TP). In this study, nanoMOFs made of iron trimesate (MIL-100) were able to act as efficient molecular sponges, quickly adsorbing up to 24 wt% AZT-TP with entrapment efficiencies close to 100%, without perturbation of the supramolecular crystalline organization. These data are in agreement with molecular modelling predictions, indicating maximal loadings of 33 wt% and preferential location of the drug in the large cages. Spectrophotometry, isothermal titration calorimetry, and solid state NMR investigations enable to gain insight on the mechanism of interaction of AZT and AZT-TP with the nanoMOFs, pointing out the crucial role of phosphates strongly coordinating with the unsaturated iron(III) sites. Finally, contrarily to the free AZT-TP, the loaded nanoparticles efficiently penetrate and release their cargo of active triphosphorylated AZT inside major HIV target cells, efficiently protecting against HIV infection.

A novel thin-film temperature and heat-flux microsensor for heat transfer measurements in microchannels.

Temperature and heat-flux measurement at the microscale for convective heat-transfer studies requires highly precise, minimally intrusive sensors. For this purpose, a new generic temperature and heat-flux sensor was designed, calibrated and tested. The sensor allows measurement of temperature and heat flux distributions along the direction of flow. It is composed of forty gold thermoresistances, 85 nm thick, deposited on both sides of a borosilicate substrate. Their sensitivities are about 37.8 µV K(-1), close to those of a K-type wire thermocouple. Using a thermoelectrical model, temperature biases due to the Joule effect were calculated using the current crossing each thermoresistance and the heat-transfer coefficient. Finally, heat-transfer measurements were performed with deionized water flowing in a straight PDMS microchannel for various Reynolds numbers. The Nusselt number was obtained for microchannels of 50 to 10 µm span. The results were found to be in good agreement with classical Nu-Re macroscopic correlations.

Wettability patterning by UV-initiated graft polymerization of poly(acrylic acid) in closed microfluidic systems of complex geometry.

Many microfluidic applications require modified surface wettability of the microchannels. Patterning of wettability within enclosed microfluidic structures at high spatial resolution has been challenging in the past. In this paper, we report an improved method for altering the surface wettability in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microchannels by UV-induced graft polymerization of poly(acrylic acid). Our method presents significant improvements in terms of wettability contrast and spatial resolution of the patterned structures as compared to recent literature and is in particular applicable to complex microfluidic structures with a broad range of channel sizes and aspect ratios. A key part of our work is the clear description of the surface treatment process with the identification of key parameters, some of which have been overlooked, neglected, or misinterpreted in previous works. We have studied these key parameters in detail and provide recommended values for each parameter supported by experimental results. This detailed understanding of the treatment process and the effects of the critical parameters on it allowed us to significantly improve quality and reliability of the treatment process.

Monodisperse colloids synthesized with nanofluidic technology.

Limitations in the methods employed to generate micrometric colloidal droplets hinder the emergence of key applications in the fields of material science and drug delivery. Through the use of dedicated nanofluidic devices and by taking advantage of an original physical effect called capillary focusing, we could circumvent some of these limitations. The nanofluidic (i.e., submicrometric) devices introduced herein are made of soft materials, and their fabrication relies upon rapid technologies. The objects that we have generated are simple droplets, multiple droplets, particles, and Janus particles whose sizes lie between 900 nm and 3 microm (i.e., within the colloidal range). Colloidal droplets have been assembled on-chip into clusters and crystals, yielding discrete diffraction patterns. We illustrate potential applications in the field of drug delivery by demonstrating the ability of multiple droplets to be phagocytosed by murine macrophage-type cells.

Equilibrium and nonequilibrium states in microfluidic double emulsions.

We describe experimental and theoretical studies dedicated to establishing the physics of formation of double droplets in microfluidic systems. We show that the morphologies (complete engulfing, partial engulfing, and nonengulfing) obtained at late times minimize the interfacial energy of the system. We explain that nonequilibrium morphologies generated in the system can have long lifetimes. Remarkably, the physics of formation of the double droplets with microfluidics allows the synthesis of particles with new morphologies.

Ordered and disordered patterns in two-phase flows in microchannels.

We show that wetting properties crucially control the patterns in two-phase flows of immiscible fluids in microchannels. Ordered patterns, continuously entrained by the flow, are obtained when one phase completely wets the walls, while disordered patterns, intermittently adhering to the channel walls, are unavoidably produced when wetting is partial. A lower limit for the channel sizes capable of generating well structured objects (drops, pears, pearl necklaces, ...) is presented.

Transition at dissipative scales in large-Reynolds-number turbulence.

Among the available diagnostics of turbulence, the flatness of the velocity derivatives is particularly interesting because it represents a straightforward test of Kolmogorov theory, and provides a quantitative estimate for intermittency effects. It is commonly considered that the flatness factor increases with the Reynolds number, following a power law at high Reynolds numbers. At variance with this picture, evidence for a transitional behavior, taking place around the Taylor microscale Reynolds number R(lambda)=700, has been recently obtained in several experiments. In the present paper we study this transition in detail, and show it has the characteristics of a second order phase transition. We propose a physical picture for this transition, based on worm vortex breakdown, which leads as to suggest that intense sub-Kolmogorov structures might develop above the transition point. These results indicate that the existence of an asymptotic state at infinite Reynolds number may become questionable and more generally, that our current views on dissipative range intermittency probably need to be revised