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Title: Influence of silica matrix composition and functional component additives on the bioactivity and viability of encapsulated living cells

Journal Article · · ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  2. Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH (United States)
  3. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  4. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

The remarkable impact encapsulation matrix chemistry can have on the bioactivity and viability of integrated living cells is reported. Two silica chemistries (aqueous silicate and alkoxysilane), and a functional component additive (glycerol), are employed to generate three distinct silica matrices. These matrices are used to encapsulate living E. coli cells engineered with a synthetic riboswitch for cell-based biosensing. Following encapsulation, membrane integrity, reproductive capability, and riboswitch-based protein expression levels and rates are measured over a 5 week period. Striking differences in E. coli bioactivity, viability, and biosensing performance are observed for cells encapsulated within the different matrices. E. coli cells encapsulated for 35 days in aqueous silicate-based (AqS) matrices showed relatively low membrane integrity, but high reproductive capability in comparison to cells encapsulated in glycerol containing sodium silicate-based (AqS + g) and alkoxysilane-based (PGS) gels. Further, cells in sodium silicate-based matrices showed increasing fluorescence output over time, resulting in a 1.8-fold higher fluorescence level, and a faster expression rate, over cells free in solution. Furthermore, this unusual and unique combination of biological properties demonstrates that careful design of the encapsulation matrix chemistry can improve functionality of the biocomposite material, and result in new and unexpected physiological states.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1340691
Report Number(s):
SAND-2017-0555J; 650542
Journal Information:
ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, Vol. 1, Issue 12; ISSN 2373-9878
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 11 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (1)

Inorganic polymerization: an attractive route to biocompatible hybrid hydrogels journal January 2018