ABSTRACT
In this study, pure silica nanofibers (SNFs) were fabricated by the electrospinning technique. Subsequently, the as-prepared SNFs were modified with (3-aminopropyl) trimethoxysilane (APTS) for applications in neural tissue engineering. The structure and properties of the as-prepared SNFs and the modified SNFs (SNF-APxM, x = 1-3) were evaluated with FTIR, TGA, nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms, and SEM. It was found that the surface hydrophilicity of SNF-APxM was lowered upon increasing the amino alkyl group content. The SEM and confocal images revealed that neural stem cells (NSCs) cultured on the electrospun SNFs and SNF-APxM substrates were elongated along the fibers in comparison to poly-d-lysine-coated (PDL-coated) substrate. In addition, a higher degree of proliferation and more responsive cells were observed for the NSCs cultured on the SNF-AP3M substrate than those on the SNFs and the PDL-coated substrates. The results indicated that the APTS-modified silica nanofibers can be potential substrates for regulating growth and differentiation of NSCs in culture.
ABSTRACT
An innovative green column-switching high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) technique was developed by coupling traditional and Pb(2+) ion-exclusion columns to study enzyme hydrolysis components of waste cellulosic biomass. Pure water was used as the mobile phase to separate neutral polar analytes in high salt content solution. The column-switching HPLC-RI was connected on-line to the immobilized enzyme reactor for successive on-line desalting and simultaneous analysis of six carbohydrates (cellobiose, glucose, xylose, galactose, mannose, and arabinose) in the hydrolysate of waste paper and waste tree branch by incorporating the heart-cut and the elution-time-difference techniques. Six internal standard calibration curves in the linear concentration range of 0-2,000 microg mL(-1) were prepared. Xylitol was used as the internal standard to give excellent linear correlation coefficients (0.9984-0.9999). The limits of detection and quantification for cellobiose, glucose, xylose, galactose, mannose, and arabinose varied between 0.12-4.88 and 0.40-16.3 microg mL(-1), respectively, with an accuracy of 90-102% and a precision of 0.1-7.8%. Cellulose and hemicellulose contents were higher in waste paper than in waste tree branch.
