Spatially selective cell treatment and collection for integrative drug testing using hydrodynamic flow focusing and shifting.

Hydrodynamic focusing capable of readily producing and controlling laminar flow facilitates drug treatment of cells in existing microfluidic culture devices. However, to expand applications of such devices to multiparameter drug testing, critical limitations in current hydrodynamic focusing microfluidics must be addressed. Here we describe hydrodynamic focusing and shifting as an advanced microfluidics tool for spatially selective drug delivery and integrative cell-based drug testing.

Autonomous Temporal Control of Hydrogen Sulfide Delivery.

Hydrogen sulfide (HS) is dichotomous in nature as it is lethal at higher concentrations, but at lower concentrations it shows a more cytoprotective nature. Due to its involvement in many physiological processes, it has recently risen to significance as a gasotransmitter alongside carbon monoxide (CO) and nitric oxide (NO). Experimentation using HS is thus important to generate in vitro and in vivo models for this ubiquitous gasotransmitter.

One Ion to Rule Them All: Combined Antibacterial, Osteoinductive and Anticancer Properties of Selenite-Incorporated Hydroxyapatite.

Although hydroxyapatite (HAp) has been doped with dozens of different ions, the quest for an ion imparting a combination of properties conducive to bone healing is still ongoing. Because of its protean potency and the similarity in size and shape to the phosphate tetrahedron, selenite ion presents a natural ionic substitute in HAp. The incorporation of selenite into synthetic HAp using two different methods - co-precipitation and ion-exchange sorption - was studied for its effect on crystal properties and on a triad of biological responses: antibacterial, anticancer and osteoinductive.