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No / Growing three dimensional (3D) cells is an emerging research in tissue engineering. Biophysical properties of the 3D cells regulate the cells growth, drug diffusion dynamics and gene expressions. Scaffold based or scaffoldless techniques for 3D cell cultures are rarely being compared in terms of the physical features of the microtissues produced. The biophysical properties of the microtissues cultured using scaffold based microencapsulation by flicking and scaffoldless liquid crystal (LC) based techniques were characterized. Flicking technique produced high yield and highly reproducible microtissues of keratinocyte cell lines in alginate microcapsules at approximately 350 ± 12 pieces per culture. However, microtissues grown on the LC substrates yielded at lower quantity of 58 ± 21 pieces per culture. The sizes of the microtissues produced using alginate microcapsules and LC substrates were 250 ± 25 μm and 141 ± 70 μm, respectively. In both techniques, cells remodeled into microtissues via different growth phases and showed good integrity of cells in field-emission scanning microscopy (FE-SEM). Microencapsulation packed the cells in alginate scaffolds of polysaccharides with limited spaces for motility. Whereas, LC substrates allowed the cells to migrate and self-stacking into multilayered structures as revealed by the nuclei stainings. The cells cultured using both techniques were found viable based on the live and dead cell stainings. Stained histological sections showed that both techniques produced cell models that closely replicate the intrinsic physiological conditions. Alginate microcapsulation and LC based techniques produced microtissues containing similar bio-macromolecules but they did not alter the main absorption bands of microtissues as revealed by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Cell growth, structural organization, morphology and surface structures for 3D microtissues cultured using both techniques appeared to be different and might be suitable for different applications. / (Science Fund Vot No.: 0201-01-13-SF0104 or S024) awarded by Malaysia Ministry of Science and Technology (MOSTI) and IGSP Grant Vot No. U679 awarded by Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia.

No / The present work explores inner structuration of in situ gelling system consisting of glyceryl monooleate (GMO) and oleic acid (OA). The system under study involves investigation of microstructural changes which are believed to govern the pharmaceutical performance of final formulation. The changes which are often termed mesophasic transformation were analysed by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), rheology and plane polarised light (PPL) microscopy. The current work revealed transformation of blank system from W/O emulsion to reverse hexagonal structure upon addition of structural analogues of ibuprofen. Such transformations are believed to occur due to increased hydrophobic volume within system as probed by SAXS analysis. The findings of SAXS studies were well supported by DSC, rheology and PPL microscopy. The study established inverse relationship between log P value of structural analogues of ibuprofen and the degree of binding of water molecules to surfactant chains. Such relationship had pronounced effect on sol-gel transformation process. The prepared in situ gelling system showed sustained drug release which followed Higuchi model.

No / The ability of a cell to adhere and transmit traction forces to a surface reveals the cytoskeleton integrity of a cell. Shear sensitive liquid crystals were discovered with new function in sensing cell traction force recently. This liquid crystal has been previously shown to be non-toxic, linear viscoelastic and sensitive to localized exerted forces. This paper reports the possibility of extending the application of the proposed liquid crystal based cell force sensor in sensing traction forces of osteoblast-like (MG-63) and human keratinocyte (HaCaT) cell lines exerted to the liquid crystal sensor. Incorporated with cell force measurement software, force distributions of both cell types were represented in force maps. For these lowly contractile cells, chondrocytes expressed regular forces (10 – 90 nN, N = 200) around the circular cell body whereas HaCaT projected forces (0 – 200 nN, N = 200) around the perimeter of poly-hedral shaped body. These forces are associated with the organisation of the focal adhesion expressions and stiffness of the LC substrate. From the results, liquid crystal based cell force sensor system is shown to be feasible in detecting forces of both MG63 and HaCaT.

Yes / Liquid crystal is a new emerging biomaterial. The physical property of liquid crystal plays a role in supporting the adhesion of cells. Nano and microball indentation techniques were applied to determine the elastic modulus or viscoelasticity of the cholesteryl ester liquid crystals in the culture media. Nano-indentation results (108 ± 19.78 kPa, N = 20) agreed well with the microball indentation (110 ± 19.95 kPa, N = 60) for the liquid crystal samples incubated for 24 hours at 37o C, respectively. However, nanoindentation could not measure the modulus of the liquid crystal (LC) incubated more than 24 hours. This is due to the decreased viscosity of the liquid crystal after immersion in the cell culture media for more than 24 hours. Alternatively, microball indentation was used and the elastic modulus of the LC immersed for 48 hours was found to decrease to 55 ± 9.99 kPa (N = 60). The microball indentation indicated that the LC did not creep after 40 seconds of indentation. However, the elastic modulus of the LC was no longer measurable after 72 hours of incubation due to the lost of elasticity. Microball indentation seemed to be a reliable technique in determining the elastic moduli of the cholesteryl ester liquid crystals. / Science Fund Vot. No. S024 or Project No. 02- 01-13-SF0104 and FRGS Vot. No. 1482 awarded by Malaysia Ministry of Education

Une série de précurseurs contenant des sous-structures organo-ioniques à base d'entités imidazolium, guanidinium, ammonium et zwitterionique ainsi que des précurseurs neutres contenant des sous-structures amido-thiol, amine-thiol et amine a été synthétisée. Ces précurseurs ont été utilisés pour la synthèse de matériaux silices hybrides nanostructurés par voie template. La formation de matériaux nanostructurés a été réalisée par des réactions d'hydrolyse-polycondensation par l'utilisation de différents agents de structuration. Ce travail avait pour but la détermination des principaux facteurs influençant la structuration des matériaux. Ainsi, nous avons préparé une série d'ionosilicates nanostructurés par une nouvelle méthode de structuration qui met en jeu des interactions spécifiques entre des paires d'ions ‘précurseur cationique - surfactant anionique' et ‘précurseur anionique - surfactant cationique'. Cette approche a permis d'accéder aux matériaux originaux de type PMO ionique. Finalement, nous avons utilisé pour la première fois des surfactants de guanidinium comme ‘template' dans la synthèse des silices ioniques nanostructurées de morphologie sphérique. Les matériaux nanostructurés contenant des sous-structures amine, amine-thiol, ammonium et zwitterionique développés au cours de ce travail présentent des surfaces spécifiques élevées et une bonne accessibilité des sites organiques. Ces propriétés font de ces matériaux des systèmes de choix pour des applications en catalyse ou en séparation. / A series of precursors containing organo-ionic substructures such as imidazolium, guanidinium, ammonium and zwitterionic entities and several neutral precursors containing thiol-amide, thiol-amine and amino groups were successfully synthesized. These precursors were used for the synthesis of nanostructured silica hybrid materials containing ionic substructures via soft templating approaches. The formation of structured materials was achieved using template directed hydrolysis polycondensation procedures in the presence of various structure directing agents. The goal of this study was the determination of the parameters influencing the structuring of the materials. Thus, we prepared a series of nanostructured ionosilicates using a new method of structuring that is based on specific interactions between ‘cationic precursor - anionic surfactant' and ‘anionic precursor - cationic surfactant' ion pairs. This new strategy allowed the synthesis of ionic 'periodic mesoporous organosilicas'. At the end of this thesis, we used a new ‘guanidinium' type template in the preparation of nanostructured i-silica hybrid materials with a spherical morphology. Nanostructured ionosilicates bearing amine, amino-thiol, ammonium and zwitterionic substructures prepared in this work present high specific surface areas and a high accessibility of the organic functional sites. Due to these features, these materials have large potential in the fields of catalysis and separation.

In this study, a double-ellipsoid structure is proposed for measurements of optical properties of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs). By using the double-ellipsoid structure, light dispersion and measurement time, which occurs during the measurement of optical properties of LCDs, can be greatly reduced. The system also significantly decreases reflective loss on interface, increasing the accuracy of the measurement. Moreover, by using the conoscopy measured from the proposed structure, light distribution of the dark state along off-axis direction can be analyzed. Based on the analysis, the cell gap and pretilt angle of vertical alignment liquid-crystals (VA-LCs) are evaluated. The proposed structure, which exhibits a fast and high accuracy measurement, is highly promising for future optical measurement of LCDs.

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