Dataset Information

Amphiphilic Polymer Conetwork Gel Films Based on Tetra-Poly(ethylene Glycol) and Tetra-Poly(ε-Caprolactone).

ABSTRACT: The preparation and investigation of gel films from a model amphiphilic polymer conetwork (ACN) grant a deeper control and understanding of the structure-property relationship in the bulk phase and at the interface of materials with promising applications. In order to allow the simultaneous transport of hydrophilic and hydrophobic substances, polymeric networks with finely distributed hydrophilic and hydrophobic components are very suitable. When designing new soft materials such as coatings, in addition to the structure in the bulk phase, the structure at the interface plays a critical role. In this study, two alternating tetra-arm star polymers poly(ε-caprolactone) (tetra-PCL-Ox) and amino-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (tetra-PEG-NH₂) form an amphiphilic polymer conetwork. The correlation between different synthesis strategies for gel films of this ACN model system and their resulting properties will be described. Through various spin coating techniques, control over film thickness and roughness is achievable and highlights differences to macroscopic gel samples. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements reveal the effect of solvents of different polarities on the swelling ability and surface structure. This correlates with AFM investigations of the mechanical properties on ACN gel films, demonstrating a strong effect on the resulting elastic modulus E, depending on the presence or absence of a good solvent during synthesis. Furthermore, a higher E modulus is obtained in the presence of the selective solvent water, compared to the non-selective solvent toluene. This observation is explained through selective swelling of the tetra-arm star polymers displaying a different hydrophobicity.

SUBMITTER: Hagmann K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9269314 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:A two-photon absorbing (2PA) red emitter group was chemically conjugated onto amphiphilic poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(ε-caprolactone) (PEG-b-PCL) copolymers, and further grafted with cyclo (Arg-Gly-Asp) (cRGD) peptide to form micelle 1. Micelle 1 with cRGD targeting groups were used for targeted bioimaging. For comparison, micelle 2 without the cRGD targeting groups were also prepared and investigated. The micelles were characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS), showing average diameters of around 77 nm. The cRGD targeting group is known to bind specifically with α v β 3 integrin in cancer cells. In this study, α v β 3 integrin overexpressed human glioblastoma U87MG cell line and α v β 3 integrin deficient human cervical cancer HeLa cell line were chosen. Results showed that the cRGD targeting group enhanced the cellular uptake efficiency of the micelles significantly in α v β 3 integrin rich U87MG cells. Higher temperature (37 °C versus 4 °C) and calcium ions (with 3M calcium chloride in the cell culture medium versus no addition of calcium ions) enhanced the cellular uptake efficiency, suggesting that the uptake of the micelles is through the endocytosis pathway in cells. A 3-(4,5-dimethyl thiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) viability assay was used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the micelles and no significant cytotoxicity was observed. The BTD-containing two-photon absorbing emitter in the micelles showed a two-photon absorbing cross-section of 236 GM (1GM = 1 × 10-50 cm4 s photon-1 molecule-1) at 820 nm, which is among the highest values reported for red 2PA emitters. Because of the two-photon absorbing characteristics, micelle 1 was successfully used for two-photon fluorescence imaging targeted to U87MG cells under a two-photon fluorescence microscope. This study is the first report regarding the targeted imaging of a specific cancer cell line (herein, U87MG) using the BTD-conjugated-fluorophore-containing block copolymers.

Dataset Information

Amphiphilic Polymer Conetwork Gel Films Based on Tetra-Poly(ethylene Glycol) and Tetra-Poly(ε-Caprolactone).

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets