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Ushkov A, Machnev A, Ginzburg P. Optically Controlled Dissolution Kinetics of Vaterite Microcapsules: Toward Novel Crystal Growth Strategies. CRYSTAL GROWTH & DESIGN 2023; 23:8009-8017. [PMID: 37937190 PMCID: PMC10626575 DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.3c00799] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2023] [Revised: 09/13/2023] [Indexed: 11/09/2023]
Abstract
Controllable continuous release of functional materials from capsules is one of the unmet functions of theragnosis particles; on this way, understanding cargo-fluid interactions in vitro is an essential milestone. We develop a flexible platform to investigate single particle-fluid interactions utilizing a glass micropipette as a highly localized flow source around an optically trapped particle. In proof-of-concept experiments, this microparticle is sensitive to local microflow distribution, thus serving as a probe. The very same flows are capable of the particle rotating (i.e., vaterite drug cargo) at frequencies dependent on the mutual particle-pipette position. Platform flexibility comes from different interactions of a tweezer (optical forces) and a pipette (mechanical/hydrodynamical) with a microparticle, which makes this arrangement an ideal microtool. We studied the vaterite dissolution kinetics and demonstrated that it can be controlled on demand, providing a wide cargo release dynamic rate. Our results promote the use of inorganic mesoporous nanoparticles as a nanomedicine platform.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrei Ushkov
- School of Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Andrey Machnev
- School of Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Pavel Ginzburg
- School of Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
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Rubio A, López M, Vega EJ, Cabezas MG. Fire-Shaped Nozzles to Produce a Stress Peak for Deformability Studies. Polymers (Basel) 2022; 14:polym14142784. [PMID: 35890562 PMCID: PMC9321844 DOI: 10.3390/polym14142784] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2022] [Revised: 06/30/2022] [Accepted: 07/05/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Fire-shaped nozzles can be used to study the deformability of microcapsules, particles, or cells traveling in a flow. Though their geometry depends on the dimensions of the original glass capillary and the heating conditions, they all produce a strain rate peak approximately at the section where the diameter is 1.5 times the minimum. The intensity of this peak and the time from its position to the neck can be easily estimated from the flow rate and three geometrical parameters, without the need for any simulation. In the convergent region of these nozzles, it is possible to observe the evolution of the deformation. It is necessary to use a sufficiently long nozzle to produce the maximum deformation before the neck.
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Gandin A, Murugesan Y, Torresan V, Ulliana L, Citron A, Contessotto P, Battilana G, Panciera T, Ventre M, Netti AP, Nicola L, Piccolo S, Brusatin G. Simple yet effective methods to probe hydrogel stiffness for mechanobiology. Sci Rep 2021; 11:22668. [PMID: 34811382 PMCID: PMC8608946 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-01036-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
In spite of tremendous advances made in the comprehension of mechanotransduction, implementation of mechanobiology assays remains challenging for the broad community of cell biologists. Hydrogel substrates with tunable stiffness are essential tool in mechanobiology, allowing to investigate the effects of mechanical signals on cell behavior. A bottleneck that slows down the popularization of hydrogel formulations for mechanobiology is the assessment of their stiffness, typically requiring expensive and sophisticated methodologies in the domain of material science. Here we overcome such barriers offering the reader protocols to set-up and interpret two straightforward, low cost and high-throughput tools to measure hydrogel stiffness: static macroindentation and micropipette aspiration. We advanced on how to build up these tools and on the underlying theoretical modeling. Specifically, we validated our tools by comparing them with leading techniques used for measuring hydrogel stiffness (atomic force microscopy, uniaxial compression and rheometric analysis) with consistent results on PAA hydrogels or their modification. In so doing, we also took advantage of YAP/TAZ nuclear localization as biologically validated and sensitive readers of mechanosensing, all in all presenting a suite of biologically and theoretically proven protocols to be implemented in most biological laboratories to approach mechanobiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Gandin
- Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova and INSTM, via Marzolo 9, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Yaswanth Murugesan
- Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, via Marzolo 9, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Veronica Torresan
- Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova and INSTM, via Marzolo 9, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Lorenzo Ulliana
- Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova and INSTM, via Marzolo 9, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Anna Citron
- Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Paolo Contessotto
- Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Giusy Battilana
- Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Tito Panciera
- Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Maurizio Ventre
- Department of Chemical, Materials and Industrial Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125, Naples, Italy.,Center for Advanced Biomaterials for Healthcare@CRIB, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, L.go Barsanti e Matteucci 53, 80125, Naples, Italy
| | - A Paolo Netti
- Department of Chemical, Materials and Industrial Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125, Naples, Italy.,Center for Advanced Biomaterials for Healthcare@CRIB, Istituto Italiano Di Tecnologia, L.go Barsanti e Matteucci 53, 80125, Naples, Italy
| | - Lucia Nicola
- Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, via Marzolo 9, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Stefano Piccolo
- Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, via Ugo Bassi 58/B, 35131, Padova, Italy
| | - Giovanna Brusatin
- Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova and INSTM, via Marzolo 9, 35131, Padova, Italy.
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Pradhan S, Solomon R, Gangotra A, Yakubov GE, Willmott GR, Whitby CP, Hale TK, Williams MAK. Depletion of HP1α alters the mechanical properties of MCF7 nuclei. Biophys J 2021; 120:2631-2643. [PMID: 34087208 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpj.2021.05.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Revised: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 05/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Within the nucleus of the eukaryotic cell, DNA is partitioned into domains of highly condensed, transcriptionally silent heterochromatin and less condensed, transcriptionally active euchromatin. Heterochromatin protein 1α (HP1α) is an architectural protein that establishes and maintains heterochromatin, ensuring genome fidelity and nuclear integrity. Although the mechanical effects of changes in the relative amount of euchromatin and heterochromatin brought about by inhibiting chromatin-modifying enzymes have been studied previously, here we measure how the material properties of the nuclei are modified after the knockdown of HP1α. These studies were inspired by the observation that poorly invasive MCF7 breast cancer cells become more invasive after knockdown of HP1α expression and that, indeed, in many solid tumors the loss of HP1α correlates with the onset of tumor cell invasion. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), optical tweezers (OT), and techniques based on micropipette aspiration (MA) were each used to characterize the mechanical properties of nuclei extracted from HP1α knockdown or matched control MCF7 cells. Using AFM or OT to locally indent nuclei, those extracted from MCF7 HP1α knockdown cells were found to have apparent Young's moduli that were significantly lower than nuclei from MCF7 control cells, consistent with previous studies that assert heterochromatin plays a major role in governing the mechanical response in such experiments. In contrast, results from pipette-based techniques in the spirit of MA, in which the whole nuclei were deformed and aspirated into a conical pipette, showed considerably less variation between HP1α knockdown and control, consistent with previous studies reporting that it is predominantly the lamins in the nuclear envelope that determine the mechanical response to large whole-cell deformations. The differences in chromatin organization observed by various microscopy techniques between the MCF7 control and HP1α knockdown nuclei correlate well with the results of our measured mechanical responses and our hypotheses regarding their origin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susav Pradhan
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand; The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington, New Zealand
| | - Raoul Solomon
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
| | - Ankita Gangotra
- The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington, New Zealand; Department of Physics, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Gleb E Yakubov
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; School of Biosciences, Faculty of Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
| | - Geoff R Willmott
- The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington, New Zealand; Department of Physics, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand; School of Chemical Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Catherine P Whitby
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand; The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington, New Zealand
| | - Tracy K Hale
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
| | - Martin A K Williams
- School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand; The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington, New Zealand.
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Berry JD, Biviano M, Dagastine RR. Poroelastic properties of hydrogel microparticles. SOFT MATTER 2020; 16:5314-5324. [PMID: 32469042 DOI: 10.1039/d0sm00191k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Hydrogels can be formed in a number of different geometries depending upon desired function. However, due to the lack of appropriate models required to interpret experimental data, it remains unclear whether hydrogel microparticles have the same poroelastic properties as hydrogel films made with the same components. We perform numerical simulations to determine the universal force relaxation of a poroelastic hydrogel particle undergoing constant compression by a spherical probe, allowing analysis of experimental measurements of hydrogel particle material properties for the first time. In addition, we perform experimental measurements, using colloidal probe atomic force microscopy, of the force relaxation of polyacrylamide films and particles made with identical monomer and cross-linker concentrations. We fit our universal curve to the experimental data in order to extract material properties including shear modulus, Poisson's ratio and solvent diffusivity. Good agreement is found for the shear modulus and Poisson's ratio between the particles and the films. In contrast, the diffusivity of the polyacrylamide particles was found to be about half that of the films, suggesting that differences in the synthesis and homogeneity of the films and the particles play a role in determining transport and subsequent release of molecules in hydrogel particles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph D Berry
- Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
| | - Matthew Biviano
- Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
| | - Raymond R Dagastine
- Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
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