Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 21 views

    Magnesium Boosts Artificial Bone Performance: Materials Today 18, Number 6 July/August 2015

    Uploaded by

    M Nur M. Mahmud
    The document summarizes three news articles: 1) Researchers have developed a graphene coating for stainless steel that increases its corrosion resistance and surface area without compromising the steel's properties. Potential applications include heat exchangers and separation systems. 2) Adding magnesium oxide nanoparticles to biodegradable polymer scaffolds improves their mechanical properties and ability to support bone cell growth for use in tissue engineering. The nanoparticles may release ions that promote cell adhesion. 3) Magnetic nanoparticles coated with curcumin, a compound in turmeric, can selectively detect amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease using MRI, offering a less expensive and safer alternative to PET scans for earlier diagnosis.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Magnesium Boosts Artificial Bone Performance: Materials Today 18, Number 6 July/August 2015

    Uploaded by

    M Nur M. Mahmud
    21 views2 pages
    The document summarizes three news articles: 1) Researchers have developed a graphene coating for stainless steel that increases its corrosion resistance and surface area without compromising the steel's properties. Potential applications include heat exchangers and separation systems. 2) Adding magnesium oxide nanoparticles to biodegradable polymer scaffolds improves their mechanical properties and ability to support bone cell growth for use in tissue engineering. The nanoparticles may release ions that promote cell adhesion. 3) Magnetic nanoparticles coated with curcumin, a compound in turmeric, can selectively detect amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease using MRI, offering a less expensive and safer alternative to PET scans for earlier diagnosis.

    Original Description:

    news,project

    Original Title

    1-s2.0-S1369702115001704-main

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document summarizes three news articles: 1) Researchers have developed a graphene coating for stainless steel that increases its corrosion resistance and surface area without compromising the steel's properties. Potential applications include heat exchangers and separation systems. 2) Adding magnesium oxide nanoparticles to biodegradable polymer scaffolds improves their mechanical properties and ability to support bone cell growth for use in tissue engineering. The nanoparticles may release ions that promote cell adhesion. 3) Magnetic nanoparticles coated with curcumin, a compound in turmeric, can selectively detect amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease using MRI, offering a less expensive and safer alternative to PET scans for earlier diagnosis.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    21 views2 pages

    Magnesium Boosts Artificial Bone Performance: Materials Today 18, Number 6 July/August 2015

    Uploaded by

    M Nur M. Mahmud
    The document summarizes three news articles: 1) Researchers have developed a graphene coating for stainless steel that increases its corrosion resistance and surface area without compromising the steel's properties. Potential applications include heat exchangers and separation systems. 2) Adding magnesium oxide nanoparticles to biodegradable polymer scaffolds improves their mechanical properties and ability to support bone cell growth for use in tissue engineering. The nanoparticles may release ions that promote cell adhesion. 3) Magnetic nanoparticles coated with curcumin, a compound in turmeric, can selectively detect amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease using MRI, offering a less expensive and safer alternative to PET scans for earlier diagnosis.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    NEWS

    controlled. The resulting coating varied


    from a few atomic layers thick, to complex,
    interconnected nanopillars of carbon
    which increased the specific surface area
    of the material by up to 26,000 times.
    The inhomogeneity of stainless steels
    microstructure was found to produce a
    graphene coating that was not highly-

    Materials Today  Volume 18, Number 6  July/August 2015

    crystalline. In addition, the wettability of


    the material was also studied, and it was
    found that when the density of carbon nanopillars was highest, the coated steel was
    super-hydrophobic. The material also displayed its highest corrosion resistance to
    synthetic seawater at this point, suggesting
    that it was the presence of graphene that

    increased its corrosion resistance, without


    compromising the properties or structure
    of the native stainless steel material.
    The team expect potential applications of
    their coated-steel to include thermal
    exchangers, molecular separation systems
    and bio-compatible materials.
    Laurie Winkless

    Magnesium boosts artificial bone performance


    Magnesium plays an important role in the
    body, maintaining bone health and mediating cell function, so it should come as no
    surprise that this biocompatible, biodegradable, low-cost, and environmentally friendly material also boosts the performance of
    artificial bone composites. Until now there
    has been little examination of the effects of
    Mg on tissue engineered replacement bone
    scaffolds. But Thomas J. Webster and his
    team at Northeastern University have
    found that simply adding MgO nanoparticles to polymer composite scaffolds helps
    bone-forming cells stick [Hickey, et al., Acta
    Biomater. (2014), doi:10.1016/j.actbio.
    2014.12.004].
    Biomaterial scaffolds that support the regeneration of damaged bone tissue using
    the patients own cells and then degrade to
    leave just the new tissue are increasingly in
    demand as existing implant materials are
    invasive to install and can lead to long-term
    health problems.
    Instead of the current practice of
    implanting permanent materials to replace
    [orthopedic] tissues, we believe that biodegradable scaffolds can be loaded with the
    patients own cells and implanted into
    the affected region, explains lead author
    Daniel J. Hickey. The scaffold degrades at

    Scanning electron micrograph of the surface of a


    10% HA/10% MgO PLLA composite after
    incubation in cell growth media at 378C for
    7 days.

    the same rate that the loaded cells and


    surrounding tissues fill the void by generating their own tissue matrix.
    The new scaffold comprises 20 nm MgO
    nanoparticles mixed with the biodegradable polymer poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)
    and hydroxyapatite (HA) nanoparticles.
    Adding MgO increases the stiffness and
    elasticity of HA-PLLA composites to match
    more closely the properties of native cancellous bone the spongy tissue found in
    the core of vertebrae and at the end of long
    bones like the thigh (or femur). While varying the size, shape, and concentration of
    the nanoparticles allows the mechanical

    properties of the scaffold to be finely tuned.


    But most significantly of all, the nanoparticles improve the adhesion and proliferation of bone-forming cells (or osteoblasts).
    In fact, osteoblasts adhered twice as well to
    scaffolds containing MgO as to plain PLLA
    samples.
    At this point, we do not know the exact
    mechanisms that make this happen but we
    expect the MgO nanoparticles degrade to
    release Mg2+ ions, which are known to play
    a key role in the action of several cellular
    proteins and processes, says Hickey.
    The degradation of the MgO nanoparticles appears to release products that
    improve the adhesion of osteoblasts,
    while the PLLA preserves the scaffolds
    mechanical properties. The nanoparticles
    also appear to have an antibacterial affect
    and enhance the function of fibroblasts,
    the cells found in skin, tendons, and
    ligaments.
    This approach is extremely practical because the materials are cheap and effective, Hickey says. We do not see any
    direct disadvantages. . .but there is still a
    considerable amount of work to do before
    these composites will be ready for clinical
    application.
    Cordelia Sealy

    Nanoparticles spice up Alzheimers diagnosis


    Dementia has a devastating effect on the
    40 million sufferers worldwide and costs
    billions in healthcare. Alzheimers disease
    makes up 60-80% of cases and, with no
    known cure or prevention, early diagnosis
    could be vital for new treatments seeking
    to halt or slow the disease before irrevocable brain damage occurs.
    Magnetic nanoparticles combined with a
    derivative of the spice turmeric could help

    310

    make earlier diagnoses of Alzheimers easier, according to researchers at the Chinese


    University of Hong Kong [K.K. Cheng, et al.
    Biomaterials 44 (2015) 155].
    Diagnosis relies on the detection of amyloid b (Ab) plaques build-ups of Ab
    proteins secreted from brain cells, which
    are normally cleared from the brain but in
    the disease aggregate into deposits. Ab
    aggregates may contribute to neuronal

    damage and the debilitating symptoms


    of Alzheimers. Early on in the disease,
    plaques may be present long before the
    patient experiences symptoms. Current
    detection techniques rely on positron
    emission tomography (PET), which is expensive and exposes patients to radiation.
    Alternatively, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is cheaper, widely available in
    hospitals, and does not involve radiation

    Materials Today  Volume 18, Number 6  July/August 2015

    exposure. As MRI also offers better spatial


    resolution, it is more suitable for early
    intervention or mass screening. But the
    technique cannot detect plaques directly;
    a contrast agent is needed to bind onto
    amyloid plaques to make them visible in
    MRI. Magnetic nanoparticles are a common
    contrast agent, but Kwok Kin Cheng, Albert
    Chow, and Larry Baum have designed clever super-paramagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)
    nanoparticles treated with curcumin derived from turmeric that bind onto amyloid plaques. Not only does curcumin bind
    naturally to both SPIO and amyloid plaques
    without the need for additional chemical

    linkers, it appears to have no toxic side


    effects.
    To help the curcumin magnetic nanoparticles (Cur-MNPs) sneak into the brain without detection by the immune system,
    Baums team coated the particles with the
    polymers polyethylene glycol-polylactic
    acid (PEG-PLA) and polyvinylpyrrolidone
    (PVP). The polymer coating prevents the
    nanoparticles from aggregating, prolongs
    the time they can circulate in the blood,
    and appears to facilitate crossing of the
    bloodbrain barrier (BBB).
    The researchers tested their novel CurMNPs in mice, demonstrating that the

    NEWS

    particles bind to plaques in the brain, which


    appear as dark spots in MRI.
    We showed that the particles can distinguish transgenic mice with amyloid plaques
    from control mice without plaques, suggesting that the particles would be able to
    detect plaques in humans, Baum told
    Materials Today.
    He would now like to see the Cur-MNPs
    tested in humans to confirm their safety
    and compare their ability to detect amyloid
    plaques with PET imaging agents.
    Our approach opens up new ground for
    research and applications, he says.
    Cordelia Sealy

    Model reveals secret of natural materials success


    Natural materials like nacre shell, collagen, and spider silk possess an exceptional
    combination of strength and toughness
    thanks to a bricks-and-mortar-like structure. During synthesis, whether by a
    mollusk or on a production line, defects
    occur by chance and accumulate in
    the material as it grows, which adversely
    affect its final mechanical properties.
    Natural materials show a remarkable ability to withstand these defects or socalled size effects and preserve their
    characteristics from the micro- to the
    macroscale.
    Now researchers at Northwestern University have come up with a mathematical
    model that describes and can predict
    the outstanding mechanical behavior of
    natural composites [Wei, et al., Acta Biomater. (2015), doi:10.1016/j.actbio.2015.
    01.040]. The staggered arrangement of
    strong, stiff filaments embedded in a softer
    matrix seen in natural materials seems,
    over multiple hierarchical levels, to cancel
    out the size effect and render their
    strength insensitive to scale. The new statistical shear lag model reveals that there
    is a critical length scale at which the dominant failure mechanism switches from
    filament fracture to sliding at the interface
    between the two composite constituents,
    says Horacio D. Espinosa who led the
    work.
    Interestingly, the critical length scale
    found by the researchers using the new
    model coincides with a fundamental length
    observed in the statistical models of fiber-

    (Top) The hierarchical structures of tendon, a biological material known for its high strength and
    toughness. (Bottom) Transition of the statistics of strength during material scaling up at each level in a
    composite with nested hierarchical structures.

    reinforced composites many years ago,


    explains Xiaoding Wei.
    [This] critical length was empirical and
    the understanding of its origin incomplete, says Espinosa. [Our model] demonstrates, for the first time, how staggered
    composites can achieve size-independent
    material strength.
    Another unique finding emerging from
    the work is that the statistics describing the
    strength of hierarchical composites change

    from a type of distribution know as a Weibull distribution to Gaussian and back to


    Weibull at each level during material scale
    up. The new model provides a much deeper
    understanding of the structure-property
    relationships in natural biomaterials and
    the hierarchical composites inspired by
    them. Using the model to introduce defects
    in a controlled manner enables defect tolerance to be designed into a material and
    size effects to be suppressed.

    311

    You might also like