A Facile and Eco-friendly Route to Fabricate Poly(Lactic Acid) Scaffolds with Graded Pore Size

Over the recent years, functionally graded scaffolds (FGS) gaineda crucial role for manufacturing of devices for tissue engineering. The importance of ...

University of Palermo

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of poly-ethylene-co-vinyl acetate (EVA) films incorporating different concentrations (0.1%, 0.5% and 1%) of nisin on the biofilm-forming ability of Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 7644, Staphylococcus aureus 815 and Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 35984. Nisin was incorporated into two grades of EVA (EVA14 and EVA28) in the melt during a common film-blowing operation. The efficacy of EVA/nisin films was evaluated by biofilm biomass measurements and Live/Dead staining in combination with fluorescence microscopy. In order to evaluate whether the nisin incorporation could modify the film surface properties, contact angle measurements and scanning electron microscopy were performed. The results revealed the efficacy of EVA14/nisin films in reducing biofilm formation on their surfaces with more evident effect for S. epidermidis than L. monocytogenes and S. aureus strains. In contrast, EVA28/nisin films showed unsatisfactory activity. Fluorescence microscopy confirmed poor biofilm formation on EVA14/nisin films, also characterised by the presence of dead cells. The data presented in this study offer new potential applications for developing strategies aimed to improve the effect of antimicrobial agents.

Control of biofilm formation by poly-ethylene-co-vinyl acetate films incorporating nisin.

Both industry and academia have shown a growing interest in materials with antimicrobial properties suitable for food packaging applications. In this study, we prepared and characterized thin films of ethylene-co-vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer with antimicrobial properties. The films were prepared with a film blowing process by incorporating a nisin preparation as an antimicrobial agent in the melt. Two grades of EVA containing 14 and 28% (wt/wt) vinyl acetate (EVA 14 and EVA 28, respectively) and two commercial formulations of nisin with different nominal activities were used. The effect of the nisin concentration also was evaluated. The films with the highest antimicrobial activity were those formulated with nisin at the highest activity and EVA with the highest content of vinyl acetate. The use of the commercial formulation of nisin with high activity in the EVA films allowed reduction in the amount of nisin needed to provide antimicrobial properties. Consequently, the mechanical properties of these films were only slightly inferior to those of the pure polymers. In contrast, films prepared by incorporating more of the nisin with lower activity had poor mechanical properties. The effect of different processing temperatures used in the preparation of the films on the antimicrobial properties of the films also was evaluated. The materials displayed antimicrobial properties even when they were prepared at temperatures as high as 160 °C, probably because of the very short processing time (60 to 90 s) required for preparation.

Incorporation of nisin in poly (ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) films by melt processing: a study on the antimicrobial properties.

The molecular mechanisms regulating tryptophan biosynthesis in actinomycetes are poorly understood; similarly, the possible roles of tryptophan in the differentiation program of microorganism life-cycle are still underexplored. To unveil the possible regulatory effect of this amino acid on gene expression, an integrated study based on quantitative teverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) and proteomic approaches was performed on the actinomycete model Streptomyces coelicolor. Comparative analyses on the microorganism growth in a minimal medium with or without tryptophan supplementation showed that biosynthetic trp gene expression in S. coelicolor is not subjected to a negative regulation by the presence of the end product. Conversely, tryptophan specifically induces the transcription of trp genes present in the biosynthetic gene cluster of the calcium-dependent antibiotic (CDA), a lipopeptide containing D- and L-tryptophan residues. In addition, tryptophan stimulates the transcription of the CDA gene cluster regulator cdaR and, coherently, CDA production. Surprisingly, tryptophan also promotes the production of actinorhodin, another antibiotic that does not contain this amino acid in its structure. Combined 2D-DIGE and nano liquid chromatography electrospray linear ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-LIT-MS/MS) analyses revealed that tryptophan exerts a growth-stage-dependent global effect on S. coelicolor proteome, stimulating anabolic pathways and promoting the accumulation of key factors associated with morphological and physiological differentiation at the late growth stages. Phenotypic observations by scanning electron microscopy and spore production assays demonstrated an increased sporulation in the presence of tryptophan. Transcriptional analysis of catabolic genes kynA and kynB suggested that the actinomycete also uses tryptophan as a carbon and nitrogen source. In conclusion, this study originally provides the molecular basis underlying the stimulatory effect of tryptophan on the production of antibiotics and morphological development program of this actinomycete.

Tryptophan promotes morphological and physiological differentiation in Streptomyces coelicolor.

The actinomycetes, Gram-positive filamentous bacteria, are the most prolific source of natural occurring antibiotics. At an industrial level, antibiotics from actinomycete strains are produced by means of submerged fermentations, where one of the major factors negatively affecting bioproductivity is the pellet-shaped biomass growth. The immobilization of microorganisms on properly chosen supports prevents cell-cell aggregation resulting in improving the biosynthetic capability. Thus, novel porous biopolymer-based devices are developed by combining melt mixing and particulate leaching. In particular, polycaprolactone (PCL), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and sodium chloride (NaCl) with different grain sizes are used to prepare PCL/PEG/NaCl blends in the melt. These blends are then leached to obtain PCL-based porous membranes that are used as solid support for the growth of Streptomyces coelicolor, a model streptomycete used to produce various antibiotics including the blue colored actinorhodin (ACT). Thereafter, the effect of the devices' characteristics on the bacterial growth and on the production ACT is evaluated. The results showed that ACT production is strongly dependent on the pore size distribution of the device. Moreover, membranes with pores ranging from 90 to 110 μm are able to offer a potential improvement in volumetric productivity of ACT if compared to conventional submerged liquid culture.

Effect of PCL/PEG-Based Membranes on Actinorhodin Production in Streptomyces coelicolor Cultivations.

In this work an antibiotic, ciprofloxacin (CFX), was incorporated into 2 different polymeric matrices, poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and polypropylene (PP), to provide them with antimicrobial properties. The influence of CFX content on release kinetics and on antimicrobial and mechanical properties was evaluated.

Incorporation of an antibiotic in poly(lactic acid) and polypropylene by melt processing.

A novel bi-layered multiphasic scaffold (BLS) have been fabricated for the first time by combining melt mixing, compression molding and particulate leaching. One layer has been composed by polylactic acid (PLA) presenting pore size in the range of 90-110µm while the other layer has been made of polycaprolactone (PCL) with pores ranging from 5 to 40µm. The different chemo-physical properties of the two biopolymers combined with the tunable pore architecture permitted to realize monolithic functionally graded scaffolds engineered to be potentially used for interface tissues regenerations. BLS have been characterized from a morphological and a mechanical point of view. In particular, mechanical tests have been carried out both in air and immersing the specimens in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution at 37°C, in order to evaluate the elastic modulus and the interlayer adhesion strength. Fibroblasts and osteoblasts have been cultured and co-cultured in order to investigate the cells permeation trough the different layers. The results indicate that the presented method is appropriate for the preparation of multiphasic porous scaffolds with tunable morphological and mechanical characteristics. Furthermore, the cells seeded were found to grow with a different trend trough the different layers thus demonstrating that the presented device has good potential to be used in interface tissue regeneration applications.

Integration of PCL and PLA in a monolithic porous scaffold for interface tissue engineering.

In the model actinomycete Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2), small open reading frames encoding proteins with unknown functions were identified in several amino acid biosynthetic gene operons, such as SCO2038 (trpX) in the tryptophan trpCXBA locus. In this study, the role of the corresponding protein in tryptophan biosynthesis was investigated by combining phenotypic and molecular analyses. The 2038KO mutant strain was characterized by delayed growth, smaller aerial hyphae and reduced production of spores and actinorhodin antibiotic, with respect to the WT strain. The capability of this mutant to grow on minimal medium was rescued by tryptophan and tryptophan precursor (serine and/or indole) supplementation on minimal medium and by gene complementation, revealing the essential role of this protein, here named TrpM, as modulator of tryptophan biosynthesis. His-tag pull-down and bacterial adenylate cyclase-based two hybrid assays revealed TrpM interaction with a putative leucyl-aminopeptidase (PepA), highly conserved component among various Streptomyces spp. In silico analyses showed that PepA is involved in the metabolism of serine, glycine and cysteine through a network including GlyA, CysK and CysM enzymes. Proteomic experiments suggested a TrpM-dependent regulation of metabolic pathways and cellular processes that includes enzymes such as GlyA, which is required for the biosynthesis of tryptophan precursors and key proteins participating in the morpho-physiological differentiation program. Altogether, these findings reveal that TrpM controls tryptophan biosynthesis at the level of direct precursor availability and, therefore, it is able to exert a crucial effect on the morpho-physiological differentiation program in S. coelicolor A3(2).

Luigi Botta

Department of Civil,
environmental,
Aerospace,
and materials engineering (DICAM),
RU INSTM,
Department of civil, environmental, aerospace, and materials engineering (DICAM), RU INSTM

University of Palermo

A Facile and Eco-friendly Route to Fabricate Poly(Lactic Acid) Scaffolds with Graded Pore Size

Luigi Botta

.css-o250i3{font-size:18px;font-family:Open Sans,sans-serif;line-height:21.6px;}Department of Civil,environmental,Aerospace,and materials engineering (DICAM),RU INSTM,Department of civil, environmental, aerospace, and materials engineering (DICAM), RU INSTM

University of Palermo

A Facile and Eco-friendly Route to Fabricate Poly(Lactic Acid) Scaffolds with Graded Pore Size

Department of Civil,
environmental,
Aerospace,
and materials engineering (DICAM),
RU INSTM,
Department of civil, environmental, aerospace, and materials engineering (DICAM), RU INSTM