The process of porous calcium carbonate (CaCO ) covering on electrospun poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) fibers is described in this study. Uniform CaCO coatings, composed of vaterite microparticles and its aggregates, were formed on PCL fibers by mineral precipitation from solution under ultrasonic treatment. The porous structure of CaCO in vaterite polymorphic form is useful for loading of various substances (drugs and nanoparticles), and this property makes vaterite an appropriate material for design of drug delivery systems. Such mineralization was implemented to attain therapeutic and/or biological activity of tissue engineering scaffolds based on electrospun PCL, by means of CaCO coatings. Various structures and polymorphs of CaCO coatings were obtained by variation of growth conditions (time of fiber incubation in work solution, ultrasonic treatment of this system). Coating homogeneity, CaCO polymorphic form, morphology, and CaCO mass can be controlled by number of successive stages of fibrous material treatment. Cytotoxicity tests showed that PCL fibers mineralized with CaCO did not release substances toxic for cells. SEM images of PCL/CaCO scaffolds cultured with cells demonstrate that scaffolds supported cell adhesion and spreading. The presented results show the new technique of controlled PCL scaffold mineralization with vaterite, and an opportunity of using PCL/CaCO as scaffolds for tissue engineering. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 105A: 94-103, 2017.

Animals were immunized with transmissible gastroenteritis virus conjugated with gold nanoparticles. The resultant antibodies had a higher titer than antibodies produced in response to native virus. Immunization with the antigen-colloidal gold complex led to a significant increase of the peritoneal macrophages respiratory activity and of plasma IFN-γ level in immunized animals.

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The authors describe a quantitative evaluation of the efficacy of cell labeling with plasmon-resonant light-scattering nanoparticles used as contrast agents for dark-field microscopy imaging. The experimental model is based on the biospecific labeling of pig embryo kidney (SPEV) cells with primary phage antibodies, followed by the dark-field microscopic visualization using conjugates of silica/gold nanoshells with secondary rabbit antiphage antibodies. To quantify nanoparticle binding, the authors introduce the labeling-efficacy factor (LEF) which is equal to the ratio of the bound-particle pixels per cell to the total number of pixels occupied by the cell. The LEF is calculated by an imaging-analysis algorithm based on the freely available ImageJ Java-based processing code. In terms of the LEF, a distinct difference was found between intact, nonspecifically labeled, and biospecifically labeled cells.

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