Many biomaterials exhibit pronounced swelling and consequently pronounced porous structure when exposed to water. Characterization and tuning of the porosity are important for the fundamental understanding of the behaviour of the biomaterials as well as for many of their applications, both traditional and novel. Here, the porous structure of cellulosic fibres (chemical wood pulp) was analysed i...

The effect of successive multiple ionic layer (SMIL) coatings on the velocity and direction of EOF and the separation efficiency for PDMS electrophoresis microchips was studied using different polymer structures and deposition conditions. To date, the majority of SMIL studies have used traditional CE and fused-silica capillaries. EOF was measured as a function of polymer structure and number of...

The peripheral blood lymphocytes from 48 heparinized blood specimens from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody-positive individuals were divided into two aliquots. One aliquot was reconstituted in one of the following five media. Medium 1 consisted of tryptose broth with 0.5% gelatin; medium 2 consisted of RPMI 1640 containing 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS); medium 3 consisted of RPMI 1640...

T lymphocytes can be rendered specific against a wide range of antigens by the genetic transfer of a chimeric receptor, a fusion between the antigen-binding domain of an antibody and the signalling domain of a T cell receptor. The use of such chimeric T lymphocytes has shown promising results for cancer therapy. Previous experiments in our laboratory have shown low rates of gene transfer using ...

To analyze the mechanisms of entry of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), we established a reporter cell line T1H6 that contains the lacZ gene under the control of the polyadenylated nuclear RNA promoter, known to be strongly activated by a viral transactivator, Rta. We found that infection with cell-free virus, as well as cocultivation with HHV-8-positive primary effusion lymphoma cell lines, activat...

BACKGROUND The p53 protein function is essential for the maintenance of the nontumorigenic cell phenotype. Pancreatic tumor cells show a very high frequency of p53 mutation. To determine if restoration of wild type p53 function can be used to eliminate the tumorigenic phenotype in these cells, pancreatic tumor cell lines, PANC-1 and HTB80, differing in p53 status were stably transfected with ex...

A system was developed to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of gaseous oxides in vitro. Target cells were MRC-5 human lung fibroblasts cultivated as monolayers on gas-permeable , FEP-Teflon membranes. Membranes were secured in Chamber/Dishes with a 25 mm diameter well. To promote attachment of fibroblasts to the membranes, the latter were incubated in collagen ( Vitrogen ) solutions for 10 min p...

Functionalized electrospun nanofibers were integrated into microfluidic channels to serve as on-chip bioseparators. Specifically, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofiber mats were shown to successfully serve as bioseparators for negatively charged nanoparticles. Nanofibers were electrospun onto gold microelectrodes, which were incorporated into poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microfluidic devices ...

The p53 protein function is essential for the maintenance of the nontumorigenic cell phenotype. Pancreatic tumor cells show a very high frequency of p53 mutation. To determine if restoration of wild type p53 function can be used to eliminate the tumorigenic phenotype in these cells, pancreatic tumor cell lines, PANC-1 and HTB80, differing in p53 status were stably transfected with exogenous wil...