Browsing by Author "Borchers, Kirsten"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Open Access
The choice of biopolymer is crucial to trigger angiogenesis with vascular endothelial growth factor releasing coatings
(2020) Claaßen, Christiane; Dannecker, Miriam; Grübel, Jana; Kotzampasi, Maria-Elli; Tovar, Günter E. M.; Stanzel, Boris V.; Borchers, Kirsten
Bio-based coatings and release systems for pro-angiogenic growth factors are of interest to overcome insufficient vascularization and bio-integration of implants. This study compares different biopolymer-based coatings on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membranes in terms of coating homogeneity and stability, coating thickness in the swollen state, endothelial cell adhesion, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) release and pro-angiogenic properties. Coatings consisted of carbodiimide cross-linked gelatin type A (GelA), type B (GelB) or albumin (Alb), and heparin (Hep), or they consisted of radically cross-linked gelatin methacryloyl-acetyl (GM5A5) and heparin methacrylate (HepM5). We prepared films with thicknesses of 8–10 µm and found that all coatings were homogeneous after washing. All gelatin-based coatings enhanced the adhesion of primary human endothelial cells compared to the uncoated membrane. The VEGF release was tunable with the loading concentration and dependent on the isoelectric points and hydrophilicities of the biopolymers used for coating: GelA-Hep showed the highest releases, while releases were indistinguishable for GelB-Hep and Alb-Hep, and lowest for GM5A5-HepM5. Interestingly, not only the amount of VEGF released from the coatings determined whether angiogenesis was induced, but a combination of VEGF release, metabolic activity and adhesion of endothelial cells. VEGF releasing GelA-Hep and GelB-Hep coatings induced angiogenesis in a chorioallantoic membrane assay, so that these coatings should be considered for further in vivo testing.
Open Access
Differentiation of physical and chemical cross-linking in gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels
(2021) Rebers, Lisa; Reichsöllner, Raffael; Regett, Sophia; Tovar, Günter E. M.; Borchers, Kirsten; Baudis, Stefan; Southan, Alexander
Gelatin methacryloyl (GM) hydrogels have been investigated for almost 20 years, especially for biomedical applications. Recently, strengthening effects of a sequential cross-linking procedure, whereby GM hydrogel precursor solutions are cooled before chemical cross-linking, were reported. It was hypothesized that physical and enhanced chemical cross-linking of the GM hydrogels contribute to the observed strengthening effects. However, a detailed investigation is missing so far. In this contribution, we aimed to reveal the impact of physical and chemical cross-linking on strengthening of sequentially cross-linked GM and gelatin methacryloyl acetyl (GMA) hydrogels. We investigated physical and chemical cross-linking of three different GM(A) derivatives (GM10, GM2A8 and GM2), which provided systematically varied ratios of side-group modifications. GM10 contained the highest methacryloylation degree (DM), reducing its ability to cross-link physically. GM2 had the lowest DM and showed physical cross-linking. The total modification degree, determining the physical cross-linking ability, of GM2A8 was comparable to that of GM10, but the chemical cross-linking ability was comparable to GM2. At first, we measured the double bond conversion (DBC) kinetics during chemical GM(A) cross-linking quantitatively in real-time via near infrared spectroscopy-photorheology and showed that the DBC decreased due to sequential cross-linking. Furthermore, results of circular dichroism spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry indicated gelation and conformation changes, which increased storage moduli of all GM(A) hydrogels due to sequential cross-linking. The data suggested that the total cross-link density determines hydrogel stiffness, regardless of the physical or chemical nature of the cross-links.
Open Access
Mikrostrukturierte Schichten aus biofunktionalisierten Nanopartikeln als dreidimensionale Affinitätsoberfläche zum Proteinnachweis auf Microarrays
(2007) Borchers, Kirsten; Brunner, Herwig (Prof.)
Nanopartikel mit einer Schale aus Proteinen stellen ein Material mit extrem großer, biofunktioneller Oberfläche dar. Dieser vielseitige Werkstoff wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit einem breiten Anwendungsspektrum verfügbar gemacht. Kern-Schale-Nanopartikel aus einem anorganischen SiO2-Kern und einer organischen Schale aus funktionellen Silanen wurden verwendet, um daran als Fängerelemente Proteine mit spezifischen Bindeeigenschaften zu immobilisieren. Die Funktionalisierung der Partikeloberflächen konnte mit großer Flexibilität an verschiedene Anforderungen angepasst werden: Fänger-Moleküle konnten in zufälliger Orientierung kovalent oder auch gerichtet auf den Partikeloberflächen immobilisiert werden. Die biofunktionalisierten Nanopartikel wurden anschließend mittels lithografischer Techniken oder Kontakt-Druck-Verfahren in Form von mikrostrukturierten Schichten stabil auf aktivierten Glasoberflächen abgeschieden. Die partikelgebundenen Fänger-Proteine wurden stabilisiert, sodass ihre biologische Funktionalität innerhalb der trockenen Partikelschichten erhalten blieb. Auf diese Weise wurden dreidimensionale Affinitätsoberflächen im Microarrayformat erzeugt, die dauerhaft lagerfähig waren. Die hohe Bindekapazität der dreidimensionalen Microspots resultierte beim Nachweis von Proteinen in einem dynamischen Bereich, der fünf Größenordnungen überspannte. Nanopartikel-Microarrays waren sowohl mit Fluoreszenzdetektion kompatibel als auch mit MALDI-Massenspektrometrie (MALDI-MS), den Standard-Ausleseverfahren der modernen Molekularbiologie und der Proteomforschung. Die hohe Bindekapazität und große Fängerdichte machen Biochips aus Nanopartikel-Microspots besonders relevant für Anwendungen, die für den empfindlichen Nachweis eines Analyten möglichst viele der in der Probe vorhandenen Analytmoleküle auf die Sensor-Oberfläche aufkonzentrieren wollen. Der modulare Aufbau der Chips ermöglicht die Trennung von Kopplungschemie und Microstrukturierung, sodass für die Entwicklung von Hybrid-Tests unterschiedliche Fängerelemente maßgeschneidert auf einer Sensoroberfläche immobilisiert werden können.
Open Access
Physical interactions strengthen chemical gelatin methacryloyl gels
(2019) Rebers, Lisa; Granse, Tobias; Tovar, Günter E. M.; Southan, Alexander; Borchers, Kirsten
Chemically cross-linkable gelatin methacryloyl (GM) derivatives are getting increasing attention regarding biomedical applications. Thus, thorough investigations are needed to achieve full understanding and control of the physico-chemical behavior of these promising biomaterials. We previously introduced gelatin methacryloyl acetyl (GMA) derivatives, which can be used to control physical network formation (solution viscosity, sol-gel transition) independently from chemical cross-linking by variation of the methacryloyl-to-acetyl ratio. It is known that temperature dependent physical network formation significantly influences the mechanical properties of chemically cross-linked GM hydrogels. We investigated the temperature sensitivity of GM derivatives with different degrees of modification (GM2, GM10), or similar degrees of modification but different methacryloyl contents (GM10, GM2A8). Rheological analysis showed that the low modified GM2 forms strong physical gels upon cooling while GM10 and GM2A8 form soft or no gels. Yet, compression testing revealed that all photo cross-linked GM(A) hydrogels were stronger if cooling was applied during hydrogel preparation. We suggest that the hydrophobic methacryloyl and acetyl residues disturb triple helix formation with increasing degree of modification, but additionally form hydrophobic structures, which facilitate chemical cross-linking.