University of North Carolina School of Medicine

6 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Bioengineering

Formulation of Diblock Polymeric Nanoparticles through Nanoprecipitation Technique

Shrirang Karve^1,2, Michael E. Werner^1,2, Natalie D. Cummings^1,2, Rohit Sukumar^1,2, Edina C. Wang^1,2, Ying-Ao Zhang^1,2, Andrew Z. Wang^1,2

¹Laboratory of Nano- and Translational Medicine, Department of Radiation Oncology, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, ²Carolina Center for Nanotechnology Excellence, University of North Carolina

This article describes a nanoprecipitation method to synthesize polymer-based nanoparticles using diblock co-polymers. We will discuss the synthesis of diblock co-polymers, the nanoprecipitation technique, and potential applications.

Bioengineering

Engineering Platform and Experimental Protocol for Design and Evaluation of a Neurally-controlled Powered Transfemoral Prosthesis

Fan Zhang¹, Ming Liu¹, Stephen Harper^2,3, Michael Lee³, He Huang¹

¹Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University & University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ²Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, ³Atlantic Prosthetics & Orthotics, LLC

Neural-machine interfaces (NMI) have been developed to identify the user's locomotion mode. These NMIs are potentially useful for neural control of powered artificial legs, but have not been fully demonstrated. This paper presented (1) our designed engineering platform for easy implementation and development of neural control for powered lower limb prostheses and (2) an experimental setup and protocol in a laboratory environment to evaluate neurally-controlled artificial legs on patients with lower limb amputations safely and efficiently.

Neuroscience

Modeling Astrocytoma Pathogenesis In Vitro and In Vivo Using Cortical Astrocytes or Neural Stem Cells from Conditional, Genetically Engineered Mice

Robert S. McNeill¹, Ralf S. Schmid², Ryan E. Bash³, Mark Vitucci⁴, Kristen K. White¹, Andrea M. Werneke³, Brian H. Constance⁵, Byron Huff⁶, C. Ryan Miller^2,3,7

¹Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, ²Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, ³Division of Neuropathology, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, ⁴Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, ⁵Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, ⁶Department of Radiation Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, ⁷Department of Neurology, Neurosciences Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Phenotypically wild-type astrocytes and neural stem cells harvested from mice engineered with floxed, conditional oncogenic alleles and transformed via viral Cre-mediated recombination can be used to model astrocytoma pathogenesis in vitro and in vivo by orthotopic injection of transformed cells into brains of syngeneic, immune-competent littermates.

Medicine

Instillation and Fixation Methods Useful in Mouse Lung Cancer Research

Nathachit Limjunyawong¹, Jason Mock², Wayne Mitzner¹

¹Bloomberg School of Public Health, Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, ²Department of Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine

The goal of this paper is to describe simple methods that will greatly aid in the setup and analysis of mouse lungs with lung cancer or other pathologies. We present 3 protocols to simply and reliably carry out lung instillations, fixation, and lung volume measurements.

Immunology and Infection

Cefoperazone-treated Mouse Model of Clinically-relevant Clostridium difficile Strain R20291

Jenessa A. Winston¹, Rajani Thanissery¹, Stephanie A. Montgomery², Casey M. Theriot¹

¹Department of Population Health and Pathobiology, North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, ²Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina School of Medicine

This protocol outlines the cefoperazone mouse model of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) using a clinically-relevant and genetically-tractable strain, R20291. Emphasis on clinical disease monitoring, C. difficile bacterial enumeration, toxin cytotoxicity, and histopathological changes throughout CDI in a mouse model are detailed in the protocol.

Immunology and Infection

Rat Burn Model to Study Full-Thickness Cutaneous Thermal Burn and Infection

Rajnikant Sharma¹, Shekhar Yeshwante¹, Quentin Vallé¹, Maytham Hussein², Varsha Thombare², Sean Michael McCann¹, Robert Maile^3,4,5, Jian Li⁶, Tony Velkov², Gauri Rao¹

¹UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ²Department of Biochemistry & Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, ³Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, ⁴Department of Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ⁵Curriculum in Toxicology and Environmental Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ⁶Department of Microbiology, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University

A model mimicking the clinical scenario of burn injury and infection is necessary for furthering burn research. The present protocol demonstrates a simple and reproducible rat burn infection model comparable to that in humans. This facilitates the study of burn and infections following burn for developing new topical antibiotic treatments.