Polymers in 3D printing of external maxillofacial prostheses and in their retention systems.

Maxillofacial defects, arising from trauma, oncological disease or congenital abnormalities, detrimentally affect daily life. Prosthetic repair offers the aesthetic and functional reconstruction with the help of materials mimicking natural tissues. 3D polymer printing enables the design of patient-specific prostheses with high structural complexity, as well as rapid and low-cost fabrication on-demand.

Fabrication of moldable chitosan gels via thermally induced phase separation in aqueous alcohol solutions.

Wide application of chitosan in modern technologies is limited by the lack of reliable and low-cost techniques to prepare size-tuned constructs with a complex surface morphology, improved optical and mechanical properties. We report a new simple method for preparation of transparent thermoreversible chitosan alcogels from chitosan/HO/ethanol ternary systems. This method, termed "low temperature thermally induced phase separation under non-freezing conditions" (LT-TIPS-NF), fine tunes gelation by adjusting only temperature (from 5 to -25 °C) and varying the initial content of chitosan (from 0.

Multichannel hydrogel based on a chitosan-poly(vinyl alcohol) composition for directed growth of animal cells.

In this study, a new method for production of hydrogels with oriented multichannel structure based on chitosan-poly(vinyl alcohol) compositions was developed. Microscopic and biological studies of the obtained hydrogels were conducted to determine the optimal composition, which would ensure that structure of the material mimics that of the epineurium and perineurium in a nerve. Structure of the hydrogels was adjusted by variation of the initial concentration of the precipitant, poly(vinyl alcohol), and acid in the chitosan compositions.

Sorption of nucleic acids and proteins on polyaniline and polyaramide nano-coatings as studied by spectral-correlation interferometry in a real time mode.

Polyaniline (PANI) and polyaramides deposited on the surfaces of glass slides and particulate silica were studied as adsorbents of nucleic acids and proteins by flow-through spectral correlation interferometry and solid-state extraction using spin-cartridges. Double stranded DNA from E. coli as well as pepsin, bovine serum albumin and lysozyme were the analytes studied in contact with the polymer nanolayers in phosphate buffer solution, pH 7.

A new methodological approach to estimation of IgA1 and IgA2 content in human serum using recombinant IgA1 protease from Neisseria meningitidis.

Objectives: A new approach to estimation of IgA subclass levels and IgA1/IgA2 ratio using enzymatically active and inactive forms of Neisseria meningitidis IgA1 protease was developed.

Results: The approach was tested using the sera of healthy volunteers and patients with meningococcal meningitis. There was a significant increase in the IgA1 level in patients with meningitis (mean titer 1:1546 ± 352) compared to healthy volunteers (mean titer 1:546 ± 282), while the IgA2 content remained unchanged.

Reversible conformational transitions of a polymer brush containing boronic acid and its interaction with mucin glycoprotein.

Reversible changes of the height of a polymer brush containing phenylboronic acid were studied. The polymer brush thickness underwent reversible changes of 0.5-1 nm, in response to the changes in composition of the contacting aqueous phase from deionized water to bicarbonate buffer and vice versa, apparently due to the conformational transition of the weak polyelectrolyte to the more extended electrically charged state.