Biomedical subjects

J Carson Meredith

Publications and source records attributed to J Carson Meredith.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Simulation of interaction forces between nanoparticles in the presence of Lennard-Jones polymers: freely adsorbing homopolymer modifiers.

The force between two nanoscale colloidal particles dispersed in a solution of freely adsorbing Lennard-Jones homopolymer modifiers is calculated using the expanded grand canonical Monte Carlo simulation method. We investigate the effect of polymer chain length (N), nanoparticle diameter (sigma(c)), and colloid-polymer interaction energy (epsilon(cp)) on polymer adsorption (Gamma) and polymer-induced forces (F(P)(r)) between nanoparticles in the full thermodynamic equilibrium condition. There is a strong correlation between polymer adsorption and the polymer-mediated nanoparticle forces. When the polymer adsorption is weak, as in the case of smaller diameters and short polymer chain lengths (sigma(c) = 5, N = 10), the polymers do not have any significant effect on the bare nanoparticle interactions. The adsorbed amount increases with increasing particle diameter, polymer chain length, and colloid-polymer interaction energy. In general, for strong polymer-particle adsorption the polymer-governed force profiles between nanoparticles show short-range repulsion and long-ranged attraction, suggesting that homopolymers would not be ideal for achieving stabilization in nanoparticle dispersions. The attraction is likely due to bridging, as well as polymer segment-segment interactions. The location and magnitude of attractive minimum in the force profile can be controlled by varying N and epsilon(cp). The results show partial agreement and some marked differences with previous theoretical and experimental studies of forces in the limit of flat walls in an adsorbing polymer solution. The difference could be attributed to incorporation of long-ranged colloid-polymer potential in our simulations and the influence of the curvature of the nanoparticles.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

The use of temperature-composition combinatorial libraries to study the effects of biodegradable polymer blend surfaces on vascular cells.

Controlling cellular and physiological responses such as adhesion, proliferation and migration is a highly desirable feature of engineered scaffolds. One important application would be the design of tissue engineered vascular grafts that regulate cell adhesion and growth. We utilized temperature-composition combinatorial polymer libraries to investigate the effects of surfaces of blended poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) and poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) on murine vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC). In this manner, SMCs were exposed to approximately 1000 distinguishable surfaces in a single experiment, allowing the discovery of optimal polymer compositions and processing conditions. SMC adhesion, aggregation, proliferation, and protein production were highest in regions with mid- to high-PCL concentrations and high annealing temperatures. These regions exhibited increased surface roughness, increased microscale PLGA-rich matrix stiffness, and significant change of bulk PCL-rich crystallinity relative to other library regions. This study revealed a previously unknown processing temperature and blending composition for two well-known polymers that optimized SMC interactions.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Nanoscale colloids in a freely adsorbing polymer solution: a Monte Carlo simulation study.

A key issue in nanoscale materials and chemical processing is the need for thermodynamic and kinetic models covering colloid-polymer systems over the mesoscopic length scale (approximately 1-100 nm). We have applied Monte Carlo simulations to attractive nanoscale colloid-polymer mixtures toward developing a molecular basis for models of these complex systems. The expanded ensemble Monte Carlo simulation method is applied to calculate colloid chemical potentials (micro(c)) and polymer adsorption (gamma) in the presence of freely adsorbing Lennard-Jones (LJ) homopolymers (surface modifiers). gamma and micro(c) are studied as a function of nanoparticle diameter (sigma(c)), modifier chain length (n) and concentration, and colloid-polymer attractive strength over 0.3 < Rg/sigma(c) < 6 (Rg is the polymer radius of gyration). In the attractive regime, nanocolloid chemical potential decreases and adsorbed amount increases as sigma(c), or n is increased. The scaling of gamma with n from the simulations agrees with the theory of Aubouy and Raphael (Macromolecules 1998, 31, 4357) in the extreme limits of Rg/sigma(c). When Rg/sigma(c) is large, the "colloid" approaches a molecular size and interacts only locally with a few polymer segments and gamma approximately n. When Rg/sigma(c) is small, the system approaches the conventional colloid-polymer size regime where multiple chains interact with a single particle, and gamma approximately sigma(c)2, independent of n. In contrast, adsorption in the mesoscopic range of Rg/sigma(c) investigated here is represented well by a power law gamma approximately n(p), with 0 < p < 1 depending on concentration and LJ attractive strength. Likewise, the chemical potential from our results is fitted well with micro(c) approximately n(q)sigma(c)3, where the cubic term results from the sigma(c) dependence of particle surface area (approximately sigma(c)2) and LJ attractive magnitude (approximately sigma(c)). The q-exponent for micro(c) (micro(c) approximately n(q)) varies with composition and LJ attractive strength but is always very close to the power exponent for gamma (gamma approximately n(p)). This result leads to the conclusion that in attractive systems, polymer adsorption (and thus polymer-colloid attraction) dominates the micro(c) dependence on n, providing a molecular interpretation of the effect of adsorbed organic layers on nanoparticle stability and self-assembly.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Combinatorial characterization of cell interactions with polymer surfaces.

We report a novel combinatorial methodology for characterizing the effects of polymer surface features on cell function. Libraries containing hundreds to thousands of distinct chemistries, microstructures, and roughnesses are prepared using composition spread and temperature gradient techniques. The method enables orders of magnitude increases in discovery rate, decreases variance, and allows for the first time high-throughput assays of cell response to physical and chemical surface features. The technique overcomes complex variable spaces that limit development of biomaterial surfaces for control of cell function. This report demonstrates these advantages by investigating the sensitivity of osteoblasts to the chemistry, microstructure, and roughness of poly(D,L-lactide) and poly(epsilon-caprolactone) blends. In particular, we use the phenomenon of heat-induced phase separation in these polymer mixtures to generate libraries with diverse surface features, followed by culture of UMR-106 and MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts on the libraries. Surface features produced at a specific composition and process temperature range were discovered to enhance dramatically alkaline phosphatase expression in both cell lines, not previously observed for osteoblasts on polymer blends.

3T3 Cells↗