TY - JOUR
T1 - Protein Microspheres with Unique Green and Red Autofluorescence for Noninvasively Tracking and Modeling Their in Vivo Biodegradation
AU - Ma, Xiaoyu
AU - Wang, Taoran
AU - Song, Donghui
AU - Hargrove, Derek
AU - Dong, Qiuchen
AU - Luo, Zhu
AU - Chen, Jun
AU - Lu, Xiuling
AU - Luo, Yangchao
AU - Fan, Tai Hsi
AU - Lei, Yu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2016/6/13
Y1 - 2016/6/13
N2 - Bovine serum albumin (BSA) microspheres were prepared through a facile and low-cost route including a high-speed dispersion of BSA in cross-linking solution followed by spray drying. Interestingly the as-prepared BSA microspheres possess unique blue-green, green, green-yellow, and red fluorescence when excited by specific wavelengths of laser or LED light. The studies of UV-visible reflectance spectra and fluorescence emission spectra indicated that four classes of fluorescent compounds are presumably formed during the fabrication processes. The formation and the potential contributors for the unique green and red autofluorescence were also discussed and proposed though the exact structures of the fluorophores formed remain elusive due to the complexity of the protein system. The effect of spray-drying conditions on the morphology of spray-dried samples was investigated and optimized. FTIR was further employed to characterize the formation of the functional groups in the as-prepared autofluorescent microspheres. Good in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility was demonstrated by the cytotoxicity test on the A549 cancer cells and tissue histological analysis, respectively. The autofluorescent BSA microspheres themselves were then applied as a novel tracer for convenient tracking/modeling of the biodegradation of autofluorescent BSA microspheres injected into mouse model based on noninvasive, time-dependent fluorescence images of the mice, in which experimental data are in good agreement with the proposed mathematical model. All these studies indicate that the as-developed protein microspheres exhibiting good biocompatibility, biodegradability, and unique autofluorescence, can significantly broaden biomedical applications of fluorescent protein particles.
AB - Bovine serum albumin (BSA) microspheres were prepared through a facile and low-cost route including a high-speed dispersion of BSA in cross-linking solution followed by spray drying. Interestingly the as-prepared BSA microspheres possess unique blue-green, green, green-yellow, and red fluorescence when excited by specific wavelengths of laser or LED light. The studies of UV-visible reflectance spectra and fluorescence emission spectra indicated that four classes of fluorescent compounds are presumably formed during the fabrication processes. The formation and the potential contributors for the unique green and red autofluorescence were also discussed and proposed though the exact structures of the fluorophores formed remain elusive due to the complexity of the protein system. The effect of spray-drying conditions on the morphology of spray-dried samples was investigated and optimized. FTIR was further employed to characterize the formation of the functional groups in the as-prepared autofluorescent microspheres. Good in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility was demonstrated by the cytotoxicity test on the A549 cancer cells and tissue histological analysis, respectively. The autofluorescent BSA microspheres themselves were then applied as a novel tracer for convenient tracking/modeling of the biodegradation of autofluorescent BSA microspheres injected into mouse model based on noninvasive, time-dependent fluorescence images of the mice, in which experimental data are in good agreement with the proposed mathematical model. All these studies indicate that the as-developed protein microspheres exhibiting good biocompatibility, biodegradability, and unique autofluorescence, can significantly broaden biomedical applications of fluorescent protein particles.
KW - autofluorescent BSA microspheres
KW - biocompatibility
KW - biodegradability
KW - mathematical model
KW - noninvasive imaging
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85006201129&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00048
DO - 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.6b00048
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85006201129
SN - 2373-9878
VL - 2
SP - 954
EP - 962
JO - ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering
JF - ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering
IS - 6
ER -