Sterilized recombinant spider silk fibers of low pyrogenicity.

We have recently shown that it is possible to recombinantly produce a miniature spider silk protein, 4RepCT, that spontaneously self-assembles into mechanically stable macroscopic fibers (Stark, M.; Grip, S.; Rising, A.; Hedhammar, M.; Engstrom, W.; Hjalm, G.; Johansson, J. Macroscopic fibers self-assembled from recombinant miniature spider silk proteins. Biomacromolecules 2007, 8 (5), 1695-1701). When produced as a soluble fusion protein (with thioredoxin) in Escherichia coli , the spider silk protein can be subjected to several purification steps without aggregating. Here, combined purification and endotoxin removal is achieved using a simple cell wash procedure, protein affinity purification, and LPS depletion. No toxic chemicals were included in the process and the protein retained its ability to self-assemble into fibers. With this method, fibers with pyrogenicity corresponding to less than 1 EU/mg could be recovered. Moreover, the fibers could be sterilized through autoclaving with retained morphology, structure, and mechanical properties. This implies that this recombinant silk is suitable for usage as biomaterial, which is further supported by data showing that the fibers allow growth of human primary fibroblasts.

Characterization, degradation, and mechanical strength of poly(D,L-lactide-co-epsilon-caprolactone)-poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(D,L-lactide-co-epsilon-caprolactone).

A series of three biocompatible P(CL-co-LA)-PEG-P(CL-co-LA) copolymers were synthesized using ring-opening polymerization and characterized by 1H-NMR, gel permeation chromatography, DSC, dynamic-mechanical analysis, and X-ray diffraction. The number of monomer units was kept constant, while the D,L-LA fraction was varied so as to constitute 0, 30, or 70% of the end segments. The molecular weights were sufficiently high to eventually permit 3D scaffold preparation. A degradation study was carried out over 26 weeks, and the effect of monomer composition on the rate of degradation as well as on changes in mechanical strength was investigated. Pure polycaprolactone (PCL)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-PCL copolymer, P(100/0), was a crystalline material displaying no measurable mass loss, a 30% reduction in mean molecular weight (Mn), and only very slight changes in tensile strength. The random incorporation of 30 and 70% D,L-LA into the end sections of the polymer chain, produced more and more amorphous materials, exhibiting increasingly high rates of degradation, mass loss, and loss of tensile strength. Compared with random P(CL-co-LA), the presence of the PEG block was found both to improve hydrophilicity and thus the rate of degradation and to infer a stabilizing quality, thereby pacing the decrease in tensile strength during degradation. The tested copolymers range from materials exhibiting low mechanical strength and high rate of degradation to slow-degrading materials with high mechanical strength suitable, e.g., for three-dimensional scaffolding.

Enhanced smooth muscle cell adhesion and proliferation on protein-modified polycaprolactone-based copolymers.

Smooth muscle cells (SMC) were cultured for up to 6 days on copolymer films fabricated from a PCL-PEG-PCL block copolymer or P(epsilon-CL-co-D,L-LA)-PEG-P(epsilon-CL-co-D,L-LA), named P(100/0) and P(70/30), respectively. The films were modified by aminolysis using 1,6-hexanediamine, and fibronectin, fibrinogen, or fibrin layers were subsequently immobilized by physisorption or by covalent coupling using imidoester chemistry. Immobilization of all the tested proteins resulted in significantly enhanced cell adhesion on these polymers. Moreover, we found that covalently immobilized proteins supported significantly greater cell proliferation than physisorbed proteins over 6 days. SMC cultured on P(100/0) films modified by covalently attached fibronectin or fibrin layers proliferated at a rate comparable to that observed on control tissue culture polystyrene. The proposed surface modification schemes were much less efficient in improving cell attachment and proliferation on P(70/30) films. However, prewetting P(70/30) with a phosphate buffer prior to aminolysis significantly improved cell numbers following immobilization of fibronectin. Immunostaining of smooth muscle-specific alpha-actin of SMC grown on protein-modified P(100/0) 8 h and 48 h after cell seeding, confirmed preserved SMC phenotype on all modified surfaces.

Smooth muscle cell adhesion in surface-modified three-dimensional copolymer scaffolds prepared from co-continuous blends.

In this article, tissue-engineering scaffolds were fabricated from P(epsilon-CL-co-D,L-LA)-PEG-P(epsilon-CL-co-D,L-LA) copolymers using co-continuous blends with polystyrene as the porogen phase. By means of static annealing and following extraction of the porogen phase, pore sizes (channel widths) in the range of 15-350 microm were obtained. Smooth muscle cells were seeded in three-dimensional fibronectin-modified scaffolds of two different pore sizes. Considerably enhanced cell seeding efficiency was found for scaffolds with larger pore sizes, indicating the importance of this parameter to promote effective cell intrusion into bulk materials. Compressive moduli ranged from 2.3 +/- 0.3 to 67 +/- 15 MPa and decreased with increasing pore size. The reverse trend was found for scaffold permeability (kappa), which ranged from 8.5 x 10(-16) to 6.7 x 10(-11) m(2). This was comparable with permeabilities previously reported for scaffolds with higher pore sizes and void volumes, but more irregular pore morphologies. Taken together, the results obtained in this study motivate further investigation for possible future applications in tissue engineering.

Gravimetric antigen detection utilizing antibody-modified lipid bilayers.

Lipid bilayers containing 5% nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) lipids supported on SiO2 have been used as a template for immobilization of oligohistidine-tagged single-chained antibody fragments (scFvs) directed against cholera toxin. It was demonstrated that histidine-tagged scFvs could be equally efficiently coupled to an NTA-Ni2+-containing lipid bilayer from a purified sample as from an expression supernatant, thereby providing a coupling method that eliminates time-consuming protein prepurification steps. Irrespective of whether the coupling was made from the unpurified or purified antibody preparation, the template proved to be efficient for antigen (cholera toxin) detection, verified using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring. In addition, via a secondary amplification step using lipid vesicles containing GM1 (the natural membrane receptor for cholera toxin), the detection limit of cholera toxin was less than 750 pM. To further strengthen the coupling of scFvs to the lipid bilayer, scFvs containing two histidine tags, instead of just one tag, were also evaluated. The increased coupling strength provided via the bivalent anchoring significantly reduced scFv displacement in complex solutions containing large amounts of histidine-containing proteins, verified via cholera toxin detection in serum.