| 1. |
- Ajalloueian, Fatemeh, et al.
(author)
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Bladder biomechanics and the use of scaffolds for regenerative medicine in the urinary bladder
- 2018
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In: Nature reviews. Urology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1759-4812 .- 1759-4820. ; 15:3, s. 155-174
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The urinary bladder is a complex organ with the primary functions of storing urine under low and stable pressure and micturition. Many clinical conditions can cause poor bladder compliance, reduced capacity, and incontinence, requiring bladder augmentation or use of regenerative techniques and scaffolds. To replicate an organ that is under frequent mechanical loading and unloading, special attention towards fulfilling its biomechanical requirements is necessary. Several biological and synthetic scaffolds are available, with various characteristics that qualify them for use in bladder regeneration in vitro and in vivo, including in the treatment of clinical conditions. The biomechanical properties of the native bladder can be investigated using a range of mechanical tests for standardized assessments, as well as mathematical and computational bladder biomechanics. Despite a large body of research into tissue engineering of the bladder wall, some features of the native bladder and the scaffolds used to mimic it need further elucidation. Collection of comparable reference data from different animal models would be a helpful tool for researchers and will enable comparison of different scaffolds in order to optimize characteristics before entering preclinical and clinical trials.
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| 2. |
- Bolin, Maria, et al.
(author)
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Nano-fiber scaffold electrodes based on PEDOT for cell stimulation
- 2009
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In: SENSORS AND ACTUATORS B-CHEMICAL. - : Elsevier BV. - 0925-4005 .- 1873-3077. ; 142:2, s. 451-456
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Electronically conductive and electrochemically active 3D-scaffolds based on electrospun poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) nano-fibers are reported. Vapour phase polymerization was employed to achieve an uniform and conformal coating of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with tosylate (PEDOT:tosylate) on the nano-fibers. The PEDOT coatings had a large impact on the wettability, turning the hydrophobic PET fibers super-hydrophilic. SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were grown on the PEDOT coated fibers. The SH-SY5Y cells adhered well and showed healthy morphology. These electrically active scaffolds were used to induce Ca2+ signalling in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. PEDOT:tosylate coated nano-fibers represent a class of 3D host environments that combines excellent adhesion and proliferation for neuronal cells with the possibility to regulate their signalling.
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| 3. |
- Chronakis, Ioannis, et al.
(author)
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MASMICRO micro-/nano-materials processing, analysis, inspection and materials knowledge management
- 2010
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In: The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0268-3768 .- 1433-3015. ; 47, s. 963-971
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The main goals of the 'Material Innovation and Testing' within MASMICRO are the identification of the miniature/micro-materials which are formable, development of new materials for forming and machining, development of an integrated material-testing system and study of material properties for design/analysis applications. Examples of collaborative work and results are presented regarding the processing of functional electrospun polymer micro-/nano-fibre structures and the characterization of their interface properties with tribological testing. By means of optical coherence tomography, a non-destructive inspection approach for these micro-/nano-structured webs was developed and it is also documented in the paper. Further, an application example of artificial neural networks (ANNs) is given, concerning the modelling of nano-fibres material behaviour under tensile testing. It is shown how artificial intelligence approaches (knowledge-based systems-KBS and ANNs) can support, significantly, the representation and processing of materials' knowledge of both, symbolic type, in the case of KBS, and algorithmic type, in the case of ANNs, for the cases dealt within the MASMICRO. © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2009.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Chronakis, Ioannis S., et al.
(author)
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Encapsulation and selective recognition of molecularly imprinted theophylline and 17 ss-estradiol nanoparticles within electrospun polymer nanofibers
- 2006
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In: Langmuir. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 0743-7463 .- 1520-5827. ; 22:21, s. 8960-8965
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Molecularly imprinted nanoparticles are cross-linked polymer colloids containing tailor-made molecular recognition sites. In this study, molecularly imprinted nanoparticles were easily encapsulated within polymer nanofibers using an electrospinning technique to produce a new type of molecular recognition material. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was used as the supporting nanofibers matrix to encapsulate theophylline and 17 beta-estradiol imprinted nanoparticles. The composite nanofibers had an average diameter of 150-300 nm, depending on the content of molecularly imprinted nanoparticles. For the theophylline and 17 beta-estradiol imprinted polymers, an optimal loading of molecularly imprinted nanoparticles was 25-37.5 wt % based on PET. The composite nanofibers prepared under these conditions had a well-defined morphology and displayed the best selective target recognition. Our approach of electrospinning-for-molecularly imprinted nanoparticles-encapsulation has unique advantages and opens new application opportunities for molecularly imprinted nanoparticles and electrospun nanofibers.
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| 6. |
- Chronakis, Ioannis S, et al.
(author)
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Isotropic-nematic phase equilibrium and phase separation of kappa-carrageenan in aqueous salt solution: Experimental and theoretical approaches
- 2002
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In: Biomacromolecules. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1526-4602 .- 1525-7797. ; 3:4, s. 793-804
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The behavior of chiral-nematic and isotropic phases of helical kappa-carrageenan in aqueous solution of sodium iodide was compared with that of the anisotropic biphasic phase that contains both these phases. On the basis of birefringence, rheology, chemical analysis, average molecular weight, and polydispersity index measurements, we derived a number of characteristic differences as well as similarities between these phases, over a range of polysaccharide concentrations obtained by the dilution of each phase. For example, we assessed the critical concentration of an isotropic-anisotropic transition (C-i), the temperature of the anisotropic-isotropic phase shift during thermal heating-cooling cycles, and the viscosity changes due to the phase shift and due to the diminishing of the helical conformation. We also demonstrated how the different phases and their dilutions behave under the effect of shear and frequency of oscillation and how the viscoelastic properties vary in each phase and discussed the isotropic and anisotropic liquid crystal controlling behavior mechanisms. From a theoretical point of view, we propose to combine the wormlike chain model for semiflexible polyelectrolytes interacting via both hard-core and electrostatic repulsion to assess the concentration of isotropic-nematic transition, to assess the coexistence concentration range, and to determine the effects of charge by applying the effective diameter and a twisting effect.
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| 7. |
- Kikionis, Stefanos, et al.
(author)
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Nanofibrous nonwovens based on dendritic-linear-dendritic poly(ethylene glycol) hybrids
- 2018
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In: Journal of Applied Polymer Science. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0021-8995 .- 1097-4628. ; 135:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Dendritic-linear-dendritic (DLD) hybrids are highly functional materials combining the properties of linear and dendritic polymers. Attempts to electrospin DLD polymers composed of hyperbranched dendritic blocks of 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl) propionic acid on a linear poly(ethylene glycol) core proved unsuccessful. Nevertheless, when these DLD hybrids were blended with an array of different biodegradable polymers as entanglement enhancers, nanofibrous nonwovens were successfully prepared by electrospinning. The pseudogeneration degree of the DLDs, the nature of the co-electrospun polymer and the solvent systems used for the preparation of the electrospinning solutions exerted a significant effect on the diameter and morphology of the electrospun fibers. It is worth-noting that aqueous solutions of the DLD polymers and only 1% (w/v) poly(ethylene oxide) resulted in the production of smoother and thinner nanofibers. Such dendritic nanofibrous scaffolds can be promising materials for biomedical applications due to their bio-compatibility, biodegradability, multifunctionality, and advanced structural architecture.
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| 8. |
- Verma, Suresh Chand, et al.
(author)
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Metal - Polymer composite nanofibres by electrospinning
- 2009
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In: Journal of Nanostructured Polymers and Nanocomposites. - 1790-4439. ; 5:2, s. 25-29
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Electrospinning is a versatile technique of producing continuous fibres and structures with diameters in sub-micron range from rich variety of polymers and their composites. Traditionally polymers in the form of solution or melt are used for electrospinning. For the first time, we utilized the co-axial electrospinning process to produce core-shell structured metal-polymer nanofibres using metal (core) and polymer (shell). A range of different polymer solutions (polyethylene oxide, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) and polyurethane) and eutectic metal alloys of two different melting points, namely MCP47 and MCP70, were investigated. The morphological structure of the resultant composite nanofibres has been studied by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Yoshimatsu, Keiichi, et al.
(author)
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Influence of template/functional monomer/cross-linking monomer ratio on particle size and binding properties of molecularly imprinted nanoparticles
- 2012
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In: Journal of Applied Polymer Science. - : Wiley. - 1097-4628 .- 0021-8995. ; 124:2, s. 1249-1255
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A series of molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles have been synthesized employing various template/functional monomer/crosslinking monomer ratio and characterized in detail to elucidate the correlation between the synthetic conditions used and the properties (e.g., particle size and template binding properties) of the obtained nanoparticles. In brief, the presence of propranolol (template) in the polymerization mixture turned out to be a critical factor on determination of the size as well as the binding properties of the imprinted nanoparticles. The functional monomer/crosslinking monomer ratio significantly affects the binding capability of the imprinted nanoparticles, but its influence on the size of the nanoparticles was found to be rather limited. The results obtained provide valuable clues for designing molecularly imprinted nanoparticle preparation in future studies, where fine tuning of particle size and binding properties are required to fit practical applications. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012
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