Improved biocompatibility and efficient labeling of neural stem cells with poly(L-lysine)-coated maghemite nanoparticles

• Igor M. Pongrac,
• Marina Dobrivojević,
• Lada Brkić Ahmed,
• Michal Babič,
• Miroslav Šlouf,
• Daniel Horák and
• Srećko Gajović

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 926–936, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.84

• electrostatic interaction between negatively charged ions of the cell membrane and the surface of the culture plate. Due to the presence of NH2 groups, which promote cell adhesion, PLL is as well used as a non-viral transfection agent for gene delivery and DNA complexation [20]. Our previous studies showed that

Electrochemical coating of dental implants with anodic porous titania for enhanced osteointegration

• Amirreza Shayganpour,
• Alberto Rebaudi,
• Pierpaolo Cortella,
• Alberto Diaspro and
• Marco Salerno

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 2183–2192, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.224

• same time, it has also been observed in in-vitro experiments that too small nanopores can even be detrimental to living cell adhesion, as they may give rise to a kind of hydrophobic and thus antiwetting behavior [27]. In Figure 3b, the EDS analysis confirms the presence of Ti oxide on the surface. In

Atomic force microscopy as analytical tool to study physico-mechanical properties of intestinal cells

• Christa Schimpel,
• Oliver Werzer,
• Eleonore Fröhlich,
• Gerd Leitinger,
• Markus Absenger-Novak,
• Birgit Teubl,
• Andreas Zimmer and
• Eva Roblegg

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1457–1466, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.151

• available at the cell edge. The elasticity of M cells was 1.7-fold higher compared to Caco-2 cells and increased significantly from the cell periphery to the nuclear region. Since elasticity can be directly linked to cell adhesion, M cells showed higher adhesion forces than Caco-2 cells. The combination of

• can be directly linked to cell adhesion, since indentation also determines the number of adhesive bonds which are formed between cells and a surface. Hence, a smaller indentation and a consequent reduced contact area leads to a decrease in cellular adhesion [54]. Thus, we zoomed into the region, where

• interactions) [56][57][58]. However, the cell adhesion molecule α5β1 integrin exhibits a different distribution pattern in M cells compared to enterocytes. Enterocytes display integrin only on basolateral and lateral surfaces, whereas M cells express α5β1 integrin on the apical membrane [41]. It is known that

Polymer blend lithography for metal films: large-area patterning with over 1 billion holes/inch²

• Cheng Huang,
• Alexander Förste,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1205–1211, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.123

• hierarchical micro–nano structures for applications such as cell-adhesion studies [36][37]. Metals like Cr, Au or Cu are good etching resists. Therefore the metal masks could be used to amplify the topographic contrast by anisotropic etching into the substrate with techniques such as reactive ion etching [38

• be used for various applications, e.g., in cell adhesion studies, for the immobilization of biomaterials, for plasmonics such as optical filters or as resist layers for anisotropic reactive ion etching. The wavelength-selective optical transmission of our perforated films due to the localized surface

Self-assembled anchor layers/polysaccharide coatings on titanium surfaces: a study of functionalization and stability

• Ognen Pop-Georgievski,
• Dana Kubies,
• Josef Zemek,
• Neda Neykova,
• Roman Demianchuk,
• Eliška Mázl Chánová,
• Miroslav Šlouf,
• Milan Houska and
• František Rypáček

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 617–631, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.63

• titanium surfaces. Bio-related titanium surface modifications based on polysaccharides and synthetic polymers have been performed by physisorption and electrostatic interactions. In comparison with polylactide coatings, physisorbed alginate coatings are capable of exhibiting pronounced cell adhesion [17

• PDA units can establish a wide range of non-covalent bonds through π stacking, hydrogen bonding, and van der Waals- and hydrophobic-interactions. PDA films have been used as the anchor layers of non-fouling polymer brushes [32][33][34], substrates for cell adhesion [35][36] and as platforms for

• controlled cell adhesion [37]. The presence of amine groups in PDA has been used for functionalization with moieties for photo-induced grafting reactions [38][39]. In this work, we study the immobilization of three compounds to the titanium surface: bisphosphonate neridronate, APTES and PDA. The neridronate

A surface acoustic wave-driven micropump for particle uptake investigation under physiological flow conditions in very small volumes

• Florian G. Strobl,
• Dominik Breyer,
• Phillip Link,
• Adriano A. Torrano,
• Christoph Bräuchle,
• Matthias F. Schneider and
• Achim Wixforth

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 414–419, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.41

• of this effect in the area of microfluidics and life science have been developed so far (see reviews [11][12]). In the past, our lab already introduced SAW devices for quantifying cell association of targeted particles [13] and cell adhesion on implant materials [14]. One of the advantages of SAW

Oxygen-plasma-modified biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds for enhanced compatibility of cardiovascular implants

• Anna Maria Pappa,
• Varvara Karagkiozaki,
• Silke Krol,
• Spyros Kassavetis,
• Dimitris Konstantinou,
• Charalampos Pitsalidis,
• Lazaros Tzounis,
• Nikos Pliatsikas and
• Stergios Logothetidis

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 254–262, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.24

• surface hydrophilicity by forming oxygen-containing groups at the surface and thus to improve cell adhesion and proliferation. The conditions of the plasma modification were properly adjusted in order to induce the desirable chemical surface changes while maintaining surface integrity and morphology. The

• , which is more apparent in the case of the treated samples indicates the growth and proliferation of the cells in their new microenvironment. Cell adhesion and proliferation According to Figure 4c, fibroblasts seemed to be securely attached and spread on the surface, regardless of the surface treatments

• is clearly observed, covering partially the plasma-treated surface. The enhanced cell adhesion and proliferation observed in the modified systems is attributed to plasma-induced chemical alterations of the surface and is in line with the results obtained from the physicochemical characterization of

Mechanical properties of MDCK II cells exposed to gold nanorods

• Anna Pietuch,
• Bastian Rouven Brückner,
• David Schneider,
• Marco Tarantola,
• Christina Rosman,
• Carsten Sönnichsen and
• Andreas Janshoff

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 223–231, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.21

• signaling, for both CTAB spheres and rods, we found within 24 h after treatment a reduction of mitochondrial activity (by MTS or LDH) as well as the activation of reactive oxygen species [13][25]. Cellular mechanics plays an important role in many biological processes comprising cell adhesion, migration

Increasing throughput of AFM-based single cell adhesion measurements through multisubstrate surfaces

• Miao Yu,
• Nico Strohmeyer,
• Jinghe Wang,
• Daniel J. Müller and
• Jonne Helenius

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 157–166, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.15

• cells regulate adhesion by expressing and regulating a diverse array of cell adhesion molecules on their cell surfaces. Since different cell types express distinct sets of cell adhesion molecules, substrate-specific adhesion is cell type- and condition-dependent. Single-cell force spectroscopy is used

• to quantify the contribution of cell adhesion molecules to adhesion of cells to specific substrates at both the cell and single molecule level. However, the low throughput of single-cell adhesion experiments greatly limits the number of substrates that can be examined. In order to overcome this

• limitation, segmented polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) masks were developed, allowing the measurement of cell adhesion to multiple substrates. To verify the utility of the masks, the adhesion of four different cell lines, HeLa (Kyoto), prostate cancer (PC), mouse kidney fibroblast and MDCK, to three extracellular

Mammalian cell growth on gold nanoparticle-decorated substrates is influenced by the nanoparticle coating

• Christina Rosman,
• Sebastien Pierrat,
• Marco Tarantola,
• David Schneider,
• Eva Sunnick,
• Andreas Janshoff and
• Carsten Sönnichsen

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 2479–2488, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.257

• biocompatible polymer exhibiting one of two different end groups, resulting in a neutral or negative surface charge of the particle. Upon observation of cell growth for three days by live cell imaging using optical dark field microscopy, it was found that all particles supported cell adhesion while no directed

• cell migration and no significant particle internalization occurred. Concerning cell adhesion and spreading as compared to cell growth on bare substrates after 3 days of incubation, a reduction by 45% and 95%, respectively, for the surfactant particle coating was observed, whereas the amino-terminated

• . Live cell imaging was performed over the course of an incubation time of three days using optical dark field microscopy in order to evaluate the cell adhesion and spreading by the cell morphology. We observe an influence of the particle coating on the growth behavior with respect to the cytotoxic

Carbon-based smart nanomaterials in biomedicine and neuroengineering

• Antonina M. Monaco and
• Michele Giugliano

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1849–1863, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.196

• of consisting of a continuous rough surface, i.e., the CNTs film, which was demonstrated to improve cell adhesion. Patch-clamp electrophysiology: One of the first studies reporting on the electrical activity of in vitro neuronal networks coupled to MWCNT-substrates was that of Lovat and co-workers

• because its nanostructure and its chemical stability render it a good candidate for favouring cell adhesion. In one of the first studies, Li and co-workers [138] studied the biocompatibility of graphene and the contingent changes in the expression of the protein GAP43, which is associated with the growth

• been studied by Park et al. [144]; the results showed not only an improved differentiation but also an enhanced cell adhesion and neurites formation compared to control conditions. Moreover, the expression of laminin-related receptors and of genes involved in the calcium signalling pathway was up

Biocompatibility of cerium dioxide and silicon dioxide nanoparticles with endothelial cells

• Claudia Strobel,
• Martin Förster and
• Ingrid Hilger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1795–1807, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.190

• investigated HUVEC populations presented an endothelial phenotype up to the highest investigated passage number as can be seen in Figure 1. All passages showed mainly CD31+ (platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 (PECAM-1)) and von Willebrand factor (vWF) positive cells (endothelial cells, Figure 1a

• (platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 (PECAM-1)). b) Proportion of CD90+ cells [%]. For purity examinations, CD90 as fibroblast cell type specific marker was determined. The investigations were performed on up to 9 passages and on HUVEC from two different suppliers (PromoCell GmbH and provitro GmbH

Near-field photochemical and radiation-induced chemical fabrication of nanopatterns of a self-assembled silane monolayer

• Ulrich C. Fischer,
• Carsten Hentschel,
• Florian Fontein,
• Linda Stegemann,
• Christiane Hoeppener,
• Harald Fuchs and
• Stefanie Hoeppener

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1441–1449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.156

• templates are found in catalysis [9], biochemical surface engineering [10], cell adhesion [11], and biomineralization [12]. It has been shown previously that chemically nanostructured surfaces can be used as platforms for the graphoepitaxial growth of block-copolymer nanostructures [13] and to control the

Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii

• Sören B. Gutekunst,
• Carsten Grabosch,
• Alexander Kovalev,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1393–1398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.152

• cell adhesion area of A. castellanii trophozoites on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates with different Young’s moduli (4 kPa, 29 kPa, and 128 kPa), we find significant differences in cell adhesion area as a function of substrate stiffness. In particular, the cell adhesion area of A. castellanii

• in the human body are the eye and the brain, i.e., very soft environments. Thus, our study provides first hints towards the relevance of mechanical aspects for the pathogenicity of eukaryotic parasites. Keywords: acanthamoeba; cell adhesion; elastic substrates; mechanosensing; silicones

• stiffness plays a decisive role for controlling cell adhesion on soft substrates, but also the specific mechanical anchorage of adhesion molecules [11]. The mechanosensory function of cells is supposed to be closely linked to the mechanisms of active force generation in cells. Analyzing cellular traction

Model systems for studying cell adhesion and biomimetic actin networks

• Dorothea Brüggemann,
• Johannes P. Frohnmayer and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1193–1202, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.131

• 10.3762/bjnano.5.131 Abstract Many cellular processes, such as migration, proliferation, wound healing and tumor progression are based on cell adhesion. Amongst different cell adhesion molecules, the integrin receptors play a very significant role. Over the past decades the function and signalling of

• be incorporated into lipid vesicles, too. We here review the mechanisms of integrin-mediated cell adhesion and recent advances in the field of minimal cells towards synthetic adhesion. We focus on reconstituting integrins into lipid structures for mimicking cell adhesion and on the incorporation of

• actin networks and talin into model cells. Keywords: actin network; cell adhesion; giant unilamellar vesicle; integrin; lipid bilayer; synthetic cell; protein reconstitution; talin; Review Introduction Since Hooke first described a biological cell in 1665 tremendous progress has been made in

Controlling mechanical properties of bio-inspired hydrogels by modulating nano-scale, inter-polymeric junctions

• Seonki Hong,
• Hyukjin Lee and
• Haeshin Lee

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 887–894, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.101

• -immobilization [15], facilitating cell adhesion [16], attenuating in vivo toxicity [17], initiating bio-mineralization [18], graphene nano-composites [19], and bio-inspired adhesives [20][21]. In addition to the interface science and engineering, methods to prepare bulk materials such as poly(ethylene glycol

Site-selective growth of surface-anchored metal-organic frameworks on self-assembled monolayer patterns prepared by AFM nanografting

• Tatjana Ladnorg,
• Alexander Welle,
• Stefan Heißler,
• Christof Wöll and
• Hartmut Gliemann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2013, 4, 638–648, doi:10.3762/bjnano.4.71

• studies. It is known that cell adhesion depends strongly on both the chemical functionalization of the surface as well as on the distribution of the chemical functionalities [31][32]. In this work we demonstrate the successful growth of micrometer sized HKUST-1 structures on patterns inside thiolate-based

Polymer blend lithography: A versatile method to fabricate nanopatterned self-assembled monolayers

• Cheng Huang,
• Markus Moosmann,
• Jiehong Jin,
• Tobias Heiler,
• Stefan Walheim and
• Thomas Schimmel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 620–628, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.71

• , partly because of their interesting properties and partly because of interesting perspectives for potential applications as functional, ultrathin coatings [2][3][4][5]. Due to their functionality SAMs play an important role for the construction of sensors [6][7] or, e.g., the controlling of cell adhesion

• platform for constructive lithography [1], cell adhesion studies, or the study of other template-induced phenomena. The FDTS-SAM could be replaced by other silanes, such as octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) or polyethylene glycol (PEG) silane, for desired applications [63][64]. The bare silicon surface at the

• applications [65][66][67]. Silane-based follow-up reactions can be used to produce silane multilayers [68], which only grow in the predefined areas. This type of SAM template has also potential applications for the selective growth of titanium oxide or graphene on surfaces [69][70], or in cell-adhesion studies

Fabrication of multi-parametric platforms based on nanocone arrays for determination of cellular response

• Lindarti Purwaningsih,
• Tobias Schoen,
• Tobias Wolfram,
• Claudia Pacholski and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 545–551, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.58

• substrates through a thiol linker system. Improved neural cell adhesion can be obtained and is dependent on the nature of the nanocone surface, thus illustrating the influence of different surface topographies on the nanometer length scale, on a complex cellular behavior such as cell adhesion. Substrate and

• surface functionality are shown to last over several days, leading to the conclusion that the features of our substrates can also be used for longer term experiments. Finally, initial neural cell adhesion is found to be more prominent on substrates with short intercone distances, which is an important

• finding for research dealing with the reactions of neuron-like tissue in the immediate moments after direct contact with an implanted surface. Keywords: block copolymer nanolithography; cell adhesion; nanostructures; surface chemistry; surface topography; Introduction Nanostructured materials for