There has been an increasing interest in understanding how the mechanical properties of the microenvironment influence stem cell fate. We describe studies of the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs) encapsulated within three-dimensional scaffoldsalginate hydrogels -whose elastic moduli were varied over two orders of magnitude. The rate of proliferation of neural stem cells decreased with increase in the modulus of the hydrogels. Moreover, we observed the greatest enhancement in expression of the neuronal marker β-tubulin III within the softest hydrogels, which had an elastic modulus comparable to that of brain tissues. To our knowledge, this work represents the first demonstration of the influence of modulus on NSC differentiation in three-dimensional scaffolds. Three-dimensional scaffolds that control stem cell fate would be broadly useful for applications in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.

Despite recent advances in nanomaterial-based delivery systems, their applicability as carriers of cargo, especially proteins for targeting cellular components and manipulating cell function, is not well-understood. Herein, we demonstrate the ability of hydrophobic silica nanoparticles to deliver proteins, including enzymes and antibodies, to a diverse set of mammalian cells, including human cancer cells and rat stem cells, while preserving the activity of the biomolecule post-delivery. Specifically, we have explored the delivery and cytosolic activity of hydrophobically functionalized silica nanoparticle-protein conjugates in a human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) and rat neural stem cells (NSCs) and elucidated the mechanism of cytosolic transport. Importantly, the proteins were delivered to the cytosol without extended entrapment in the endosomes, which facilitated the retention of biological activity of the delivered proteins. As a result, delivery of ribonuclease A (RNase A) and the antibody to phospho-Akt (pAkt) resulted in the initiation of cell death. Delivery of control protein conjugates (e.g., those containing green fluorescent protein or goat antirabbit IgG) resulted in minimal cell death, indicating that the carrier-mediated toxicity was low. The results presented here provide insight into the design of nanomaterials as protein carriers that enable control of cell function.

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We describe the parallel synthesis and in vitro evaluation of a cationic polymer library for the discovery of nonviral gene delivery vectors. The library was synthesized based on the ring-opening polymerization reaction between epoxide groups of diglycidyl ethers and the amines of (poly)amines. Parallel screening of soluble library constituents led to the identification of lead polymers with high DNA-binding efficacies. Transfection efficacies of lead polymers were evaluated using PC3-PSMA human prostate cancer cells and murine osteoblasts in the absence and presence of serum. In vitro experiments resulted in the identification of a candidate polymer that demonstrated significantly higher transfection efficacies and lower cytotoxicities than poly(ethyleneimine) (pEI), the current standard for polymeric transfection agents. In addition, polymers that demonstrated moderately higher and comparable transfection efficacies with respect to pEI were also identified. Our results demonstrate that high-throughput synthesis and screening of polymers is a powerful approach for the identification of novel nonviral gene delivery agents.