Hydration-dehydration of adsorbed protein films studied by AFM and QCM-D.

The hydration-dehydration process of an adsorbed human serum albumin film has been studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). All measurements were performed with identically prepared protein films deposited on highly hydrophilic substrates. Both techniques are shown to be suitable for following in situ the kinetics of protein hydration, and for providing quantitative values of the adsorbed adlayer mass. The results obtained by the two methods have been compared and combined to study changes of physical properties of the films in terms of viscosity, shear, Young's modulus, density and film thickness. These properties were found to be reversible during hydration-dehydration cycles.

The influence of electrostatic forces on protein adsorption.

In this paper we investigate the importance of electrostatic double layer forces on the adsorption of human serum albumin by UV-ozone modified polystyrene. Electrostatic forces were measured between oxidized polystyrene surfaces and gold-coated atomic force microscope (AFM) probes in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solutions. The variation in surface potential with surface oxygen concentration was measured. The observed force characteristics were found to agree with the theory of electrical double layer interaction under the assumption of constant potential. Chemically patterned polystyrene surfaces with adjacent 5 microm x 5 microm polar and non-polar domains have been studied by AFM before and after human serum albumin adsorption. A topographically flat surface is observed before protein adsorption indicating that the patterning process does not physically modify the surface. Friction force imaging clearly reveals the oxidation pattern with the polar domains being characterised by a higher relative friction compared to the non-polar, untreated domains. Far-field force imaging was performed on the patterned surface using the interleave AFM mode to produce two-dimensional plots of the distribution of electrostatic double-layer forces formed when the patterned polystyrene surfaces is immersed in PBS. Imaging of protein layers adsorbed onto the chemically patterned surfaces indicates that the electrostatic double-layer force was a significant driving force in the interaction of protein with the surface.

Orientation and confinement of cells on chemically patterned polystyrene surfaces.

UV/ozone oxidation was combined with a photomasking technique to produce adjacent regions of different chemistry on polystyrene (PS) surfaces. The surface chemistry and topography were studied using AFM, XPS and contact angle measurements. The physicochemical patterns were visualised by the condensation of water vapour upon the surfaces and by the differential attachment of Chinese hamster ovarian (CHO) cells. The orientation of CHO cells on 55 and 125 microm wide oxidised PS strips were measured and found to be highly dependent on the width of the oxidised feature. CHO cells in relatively close proximity to a linear polar/non-polar border showed significant axial alignment along the border. CHO cells can also be confined to specific regions of the polymer surface. Cells attached to larger areas (75 microm x 75 microm) were found to have a smaller average cell size than cells attached to the smaller (56 microm x 56 microm) areas.

Improved cellular adhesion to acetone plasma modified polystyrene surfaces.

The plasma polymerization of acetone has been used to modify polystyrene substrates for the controlled growth of human fibroblast cells. The surface modified polystyrene was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, water contact angle and atomic force microscopy. This showed the surface oxygen levels and wettability to increase rapidly with exposure to the acetone plasma. High-resolution XPS allowed the determination of the relative amounts of surface hydroxyl, carbonyl and carboxyl groups. This showed that there was little incorporation of carboxyl groups in the deposited films. AFM measurements revealed the films to be conformal with a surface roughness equivalent to that of the underlying polystyrene substrate with film growth rates of approximately 0.5 nm min(-1). High edge-definition patterns were produced with a simple masking procedure and allowed the confinement of cells to selected areas of the substrate. These chemically patterned surfaces allowed the study of cells confined to particular regions of the substrate as a function of incubation time.

Electrolytic drops in an electric field: A numerical study of drop deformation and breakup.

The deformation and breakup of an axisymmetric, conducting drop suspended in a nonconducting medium and subjected to an external electric field is numerically investigated here using an electrokinetic model. This model uses a combined level set-volume of fluid formulation of the deformable surfaces, along with a multiphase implementation of the Nernst-Planck equation for transport of ions, that allows for varying conductivity inside the drop. A phase diagram, based on a parametric study, is used to characterize the stability conditions. Stable drops with lower ion concentration are characterized by longer drop shapes than those achieved at higher ion concentrations. For higher drop ion concentration, greater charge accumulation is observed at drop tips. Consequently, such drops break up by pinching off rather than tip streaming. The charge contained in droplets released from unstable drops is shown to increase with drop ion concentration. These dynamic drop behaviors depend on the strength of the electric field and the concentration of ions in the drop and result from the interplay between the electric forces arising from the permittivity jump at the drop interface and the ions in the bulk.

Cellular attachment and spatial control of cells using micro-patterned ultra-violet/ozone treatment in serum enriched media.

Ultra-violet Ozone (UVO) modified polystyrene (PS) surfaces were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), contact angle (CA), optical microscopy (OM) and cell culture experiments. UV/Ozone treatment up to 900 s was used to increase the surface oxygen concentration of PS surfaces from 0% to approximately 35% (unwashed) and 0% to approximately 27% (washed). The observed differences in oxygen concentration, between washed and unwashed surfaces, have been previously attributed to the removal of low molecular weight debris produced in this treatment process. Surface roughness (Rq) is known to affect cellular attachment and proliferation. AFM studies of the UV/Ozone treated PS surfaces show the surface roughness is an order of magnitude less than that expected to cause an effect. UV/Ozone treatment of PS showed a marked change in CA which decreased to approximately 60 degrees after 900 s treatment. The increased attachment and proliferation of Chinese hamster ovarian (CHO) and mouse embryo 3T3-L1 (3T3) cells on the treated surfaces compared to untreated PS were found to correlate strongly with the increase in surface oxygen concentration. Surface chemical oxidation patterns on the PS were produced using a simple masking technique and a short UV/Ozone treatment time, typically 20-45 s. The chemical patterns on PS were visualized by water condensation and the spatially selective attachment of CHO and 3T3-L1 cells cultured with 10% (v/v) serum. This paper describes an easily reproducible, one step technique to produce a well-defined, chemically heterogeneous surface with a cellular resolution using UV/Ozone modification. By using a variety of cell types, that require different media conditions, we have been able to expand the potential applications of this procedure.

UV-ozone modification of plasma-polymerised acetonitrile films for enhanced cell attachment.

Plasma polymerisation is of great interest for modifying the surface properties of biomedical devices in order to control, for example, protein adsorption and cell attachment. In this paper we present results for plasma-polymerised acetonitrile deposited onto silicon or polystyrene substrates. The chemistry of films deposited under a range of experimental conditions was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). XPS provided evidence that the elemental composition of the films varied with rf power to flow rate parameter (W/F) with films produced at higher W/F being deficient in nitrogen. FTIR revealed that the plasma deposited film contained a wide range of nitrogen functional groups including amine, imine and nitrile. Oxidation of the films by exposure to radiation from a low pressure mercury vapour lamp in an air ambient increased the surface oxygen levels from 3 to 17at.% after 300 s exposure. XPS also revealed that the oxidation process proceeded via the formation of carbonyl groups at short exposure times (<60s) while longer treatment times (>60s) resulted in an increase in the concentration of carboxyl groups. To assess their potential to support cell growth, polystyrene culture dishes coated with plasma deposited films and UV-ozone oxidised films were seeded with 1BR.3.N human fibroblast cells and incubated for up to 72 h. Un-oxidised plasma-polymerised acetonitrile films were found to give comparable cell attachment densities as tissue culture polystyrene. The greatest cell attachment density was found with plasma polymer films which had been UV-ozone treated for the longest time (300 s). Enhanced attachment to this surface was attributed to the high level of carboxylic groups found on this substrate.

Rehabilitation of the athlete after shoulder arthroscopy.

Rehabilitation of the athlete is an integral part of returning to sports after shoulder surgery. The physician and therapist need to work in tandem to develop a proper rehabilitation program to allow the patient to achieve a satisfactory performance level. Painfree range of motion, strength, endurance, proprioception, and proper sport-specific patterns are the goals of rehabilitation before returning the athlete safely to sport.

Neuromas of the heel.

Often overlooked in the differential diagnosis of heel pain is neuroma of the medial calcaneal branch of the posterior tibial nerve. Heel neuroma is an important disorder of the foot that has been misdiagnosed by physicians since the early 1900s as heel spur syndrome. The authors show how heel pain rarely has anything to do with calcaneal exostosis, but instead could be related to heel neuroma.

Electroviscous resistance of nanofluidic bends.

Analysis tools that quantify the pressure and potential changes occurring over pressure-driven electrokinetic device elements are necessary for the design of optimal laboratory-on-a-chip devices. In this study, the resistance of a nanofluidic silica channel with negatively charged walls containing a 90^{∘} bend to the electroviscous flow of a potassium chloride salt solution is quantified in terms of two equivalent lengths using numerical analysis. One equivalent length is based on the excess pressure drop and the other on the excess potential rise. Over the entire range of simulations conducted, these equivalent lengths are relatively independent of salt concentration, flow velocity, channel size, and surface charge, remaining within the approximate ranges of 1.3-1.5 for the pressure equivalent length and 0.8-1.05 for the potential equivalent length.

A simple, versatile valve model for use in lumped parameter and one-dimensional cardiovascular models.

Lumped parameter and one-dimensional models of the cardiovascular system generally employ ideal cardiac and/or venous valves that open and close instantaneously. However, under normal or pathological conditions, valves can exhibit complex motions that are mainly determined by the instantaneous difference between upstream and downstream pressures. We present a simple valve model that predicts valve motion on the basis of this pressure difference, and can be used to investigate not only valve pathology, but a wide range of cardiac and vascular factors that are likely to influence valve motion.

Effect of wall permittivity on electroviscous flow through a contraction.

The electroviscous flow at low Reynolds number through a two-dimensional slit contraction with electric double-layer overlap is investigated numerically for cases where the permittivity of the wall material is significant in comparison with the permittivity of the liquid. The liquid-solid interface is assumed to have uniform surface-charge density. It is demonstrated that a finite wall permittivity has a marked effect on the distribution of ions in and around the contraction, with a significant build-up of counter-ions observed at the back-step. The development length of the flow increases substantially as the wall permittivity becomes significant, meaning that the electric double-layers require a longer distance to develop within the contraction. Consequently, there is a corresponding decrease in the hydrodynamic and electro-potential resistance caused by the contraction. The effect of wall-region width on the flow characteristics is also quantified, demonstrating that the development length increases with increasing wall-region width for widths up to 5 channel widths.

Examining separated symphysis pubis.

Separated symphysis pubis (SSP) is a rare condition that results in a separation of the symphysis pubis bone in late pregnancy or during delivery and occurs in otherwise healthy pregnancies as a result of hormonal and/or biomechanical factors. Several researchers have examined the issue in the Scandinavian countries, where it appears to be more prevalent possibly due to a genetic link. Symptoms range from mild discomfort to total debilitation. Differential diagnosis includes exclusion of more serious medical conditions. The nurse midwife's role is prompt diagnosis, medical consultation, support, and education.