Showing papers by "Leigh T. Canham published in 2009"

Generation of reactive oxygen species from porous silicon microparticles in cell culture medium.

Abstract: Nanostructured (porous) silicon is a promising biodegradable biomaterial, which is being intensively researched as a tissue engineering scaffold and drug-delivery vehicle. Here, we tested the biocompatibility of non-treated and thermally-oxidized porous silicon particles using an indirect cell viability assay. Initial direct cell culture on porous silicon determined that human lens epithelial cells only poorly adhered to non-treated porous silicon. Using an indirect cell culture assay, we found that non-treated microparticles caused complete cell death, indicating that these particles generated a toxic product in cell culture medium. In contrast, thermally-oxidized microparticles did not reduce cell viability significantly. We found evidence for the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by means of the fluorescent probe 2',7'-dichlorofluorescin. Our results suggest that non-treated porous silicon microparticles produced ROS, which interacted with the components of the cell culture medium, leading to the formation of cytotoxic species. Oxidation of porous silicon microparticles not only mitigated, but also abolished the toxic effects.

Location‐dependent controlled release kinetics of model hydrophobic compounds from mesoporous silicon/biopolymer composite fibers

Abstract: In this study, biodegradable mesoporous Si (BioSilicon ™ ) was loaded with cis-(2,2'-bipyridine) dichlororuthenium (II) (Ru complex) as a model hydrophobic compound. This ruthenium complex-loaded BioSilicon ™ was either partially embedded on the surface of electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) fibers or fully encapsulated within the fibers. To study release profiles in the above model delivery systems, porous Si/PCL constructs were soaked in DI water at 37 °C and the UV―Vis absorption spectrum of the supernatant was measured as a function of time. These results show that the Ru complex was released in a sustained manner over 7-day period. In addition, it is shown that the controlled-release of this complex depends on both the spatial location of the complex in the PCL fibrous scaffolds as well as the amount of Ru compound loaded in the mesoporous Si.

Incorporation and characterization of boron neutron capture therapy agents into mesoporous silicon and silicon nanowires

Abstract: The tunable pore size, biodegradability, and surface chemis- try of mesoporous silicon (BioSilicon ™ ) are important to a broad spectrum of uses for drug delivery. For the case of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), encapsulation of a given boron-containing drug molecule within a porous BioSilicon ™ microparticle provides a vehicle for a brachytherapy method that avoids the necessity of drug modification. In this work, the loading and characterization of three clinically approved BNCT drugs into mesoporous Si is demonstrated. Because of difficulties associated with light element detection, a method based on a Beer's Law analysis of selected FTIR vibrational bands has been developed to estimate boron-containing drug loading in these materials. As a complementary nanostructural platform, a cathodic deposition process for the surface enriched growth of selected drugs onto the surface of silicon nanowires is also described.