Organosilicate nanoparticles as gene delivery vehicles for bone cells

(cont.) proliferation. The metabolic response of these cells after particle ingestion was also characterized in order to ensure that the osteoblasts retained their phenotype. The expression of various proteins involved in bone formation, such as alkaline phosphatase, osteocalcin, osteopontin and fibronectin was quantified. The results indicated that osteoblasts retained their phenotype after organosilicate nanoparticle ingestion. The levels of various cytokines expressed during inflammatory response remained low due to the biocompatibility of amorphous silica. An optimized Ca-SiO₂ nanoparticulate system was developed with maximum particle uptake that enhanced cell viability. A model gene delivery system was created by complexing these nanoparticles with plasmid DNA that encoded for green fluorescent protein (GFP). The effects of nanoparticle size, composition and surface charge on complex size, DNA binding affinity and subsequent GFP expression in osteoblasts were investigated in detail. In addition to primary and immortalized osteoblasts, we have studied the effect of this gene delivery system on two other control cell lines: fibroblasts (connective tissue cells) and hepatocytes (non-connective tissue cells). The Ca-SiO₂-DNA complexes displayed significantly higher transfection efficiencies in osteoblasts and fibroblasts relative to hepatocytes compared to lipofectamine-DNA complexes. In addition, Ca-SiO₂-DNA complexes enhanced osteoblast cell proliferation while achieving successful transfection ...

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Moudgil, Suniti, 1976-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jackie Y. Ying.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28307

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28307