All-protein implantable, resorbable reflectors

a reflector and all-protein technology, applied in the field of biophotonic and biomedical devices, can solve the problems of curbing image resolution and depth of observation, and imaging techniques are also limited by amount and type, and achieve the effect of slow degradability and no adverse biological effects

Inactive Publication Date: 2015-04-16
TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

In spite of this pivotal role, imaging techniques still present challenges, including the optical transmission limitations of natural tissue imposed by scattering and absorption that curb the image resolution and the depth of observation.
The imaging techniques are also limited by the amount and type of information that can be relayed by the optical system.
These problems often require resorting to methods for enhancing image quality through, for example, introducing exogenous contrast agents or radioactive markers that can be invasive or toxic or resorting to probes for imaging such as those afforded by endoscopy.

Method used

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  • All-protein implantable, resorbable reflectors
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  • All-protein implantable, resorbable reflectors

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

Preparation of Silk Fibroin Solution

[0136]Production of silk fibroin solutions has been described previously. Perry et al., 2008; McCarthy et al., 54 J. Biomed. Mats. Res. 139 (2001). Briefly, sericin, a water-soluble glycoprotein bound to raw fibroin filaments, was removed from the silk strands by boiling B. mori cocoons in a 0.02 M aqueous solution of NaCO3 for 60 min. Thereafter, the remaining silk fibroin bundle was rinsed thoroughly in purified water and allowed to dry overnight. The dry fibroin bundle was then dissolved in a 9.3 M aqueous solution of LiBr at 60° C. for 4 hr. The LiBr salt was then extracted from the solution over the course of three days, through a water-based dialysis process using Slide-A-Lyzer® 3.5K MWCO dialysis cassettes (Pierce, Rockford, Ill.). Any remaining particulates were removed through centrifugation and syringe-based micro-filtration (5 μm pore size, Millipore Inc., Bedford, Mass.). This process can yield 8%-10% (w / v) silk fibroin solution with m...

example 2

Fabrication of Silk Reflector Films

[0139]The fabrication of the silk reflector films was obtained by using a casting technique similar to soft-lithography. Perry et al., 2008; Xia & Whitesides, 1998. Briefly, silk fibroin solution of excellent optical quality and stability was cast onto a microprism master mould (3M™ SCOTCHLITE™ Reflective Material-High Gloss Film, 3M, St. Paul, Minn.). The master consists of an array of microprisms, which have dimensions of about 100 micrometers and clustered in groups as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.

[0140]The silk solution was allowed to dry and crystallize for 8-12 hours, upon which it was mechanically detached from the master surface. Upon microscopic examination, the silk retroreflective films replicate the master and have a reflective appearance similar to the master mould, as shown in FIG. 5. The index of refraction of silk is n=1.54. The silk films were water annealed to guarantee reduced solubility in a humid environment without loss of funct...

example 3

Reflection Measurements

[0142]The retroreflecting silk film were characterized by measuring the luminous intensity and retroreflector coefficients per illuminance level on the surface of the retroreflector (in candelas / lx and candelas / (lx / m2), respectively).

[0143]The performance of the replicated silk films as reflectors was quantified by exposing the system to a quasi-isotropic illumination provided by a white light source (e.g., a flash light bulb). The reflection from the silk films was collected at a distance of 1.5 meters with a digital CCD camera, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 7.

[0144]The experimental setup for measuring the increase in reflected signal is illustrated in FIG. 4 and FIG. 7. For example, in FIG. 7, the reflectivity measurements were performed by using a white light source. A red filter was applied to the white light source to reduce the spectral range, thus avoiding CCD saturation. The reflectivity was characterized for both the silk film replica and the master. In...

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Abstract

The invention provides for compositions and process for fabricating an optical reflector constructed from biocompatible and bioresorbable silk fibroin proteins. For example, the silk retroreflectors may be built based on millimeter size microprism arrays to rotate the image plane of imaged cortical layers, thus enhancing the amount of photons that are detectable in the reflected direction when inserted in a sample to be analyzed, and ultimately increasing in contrast ratio in multiphoton microscopy. Such device can be used as a label-free, biocompatible, bioresorbable, implantable device for various applications ranging from medical imaging / diagnostics, drug / therapeutic delivery, to food chain safety and environmental monitoring.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 386,388, entitled “All-Protein Implantable, Resorbable Reflectors” and filed on Apr. 6, 2012, which is a 35 U.S.C. §371 National Stage of International Application No. PCT / US2010 / 042585, entitled “All-Protein Implantable, Resorbable Reflectors” and filed on Jul. 20, 2010 and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 226,801, entitled “All-Protein Implantable, Resorbable Reflectors” and filed Jul. 20, 2009, the contents of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety.GOVERNMENT SUPPORT[0002]This invention was made with government support under EB002520 awarded by the National Institutes of Health, W911NF-07-1-0618 awarded by the Army Research Office, and FA9550-07-1-0079 awarded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The government has certain rights in the invention.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0003]This ...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): A61K49/00A61L27/22
CPCA61K49/0004A61L27/227A61B5/0059
Inventor OMENETTO, FIORENZOKAPLAN, DAVID L.
Owner TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE
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