Albumin Microspheres as “Trans-Ferry-Beads” for Easy Cell Passaging in Cell Culture Technology

Protein hydrogels represent ideal materials for advanced cell culture applications, including 3D-cultivation of even fastidious cells. Key properties of fully functional and, at the same time, economically successful cell culture materials are excellent biocompatibility and advanced fabrication processes allowing their easy production even on a large scale based on affordable compounds. Chemical crosslinking of bovine serum albumin (BSA) with N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N’-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) in a water-in-oil emulsion with isoparaffinic oil as the continuous phase and sorbitan monooleate as surfactant generates micro-meter-scale spherical particles. They allow a significant simplification of an indispensable and laborious step in traditional cell culture workflows. This cell passaging (or splitting) to fresh culture vessels/flasks conventionally requires harsh trypsinization, which can be omitted by using the “trans-ferry-beads” presented here. When added to different pre-cultivated adherent cell lines, the beads are efficiently boarded by cells as passengers and can be easily transferred afterward for the embarkment of novel flasks. After this procedure, cells are perfectly viable and show normal growth behavior. Thus, the trans-ferry-beads not only may become extremely affordable as a final product but also may generally replace trypsinization in conventional cell culture, thereby opening new routes for the establishment of optimized and resource-efficient workflows in biological and medical cell culture laboratories.

Removal of Ibuprofen at Low Concentration Using a Newly Formulated Emulsion Liquid Membrane

Ibuprofen (IBP) is a pharmaceutical product that is widely prescribed as an over-the-counter painkiller. It has been classified as a contaminant of emerging concern (CEC) that has received global attention in the search for a better wastewater separation technology. The emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) is one of the potential solutions for IBP removal from wastewater owing to its advantages, such as the ability to remove a highly soluble solute, energy efficient and tuneable formulation. To develop this ELM, a series of parameters such as stirring speed, emulsification time, organic to internal phase volume ratio (O/I), internal phase concentration, carrier concentration and surfactant concentration were studied. The extraction was carried out for 15 min stirring time and the concentration of IBP in the feed phase was determined using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The optimum formulation for the ELM was found at 300 rpm stirring speed, 20 min emulsification time, 3:1 of O/I, 0.1 M ammonia, NH3 (stripping agent), 6 wt% trioctylamine, TOA (carrier) and 2 wt% sorbitan monooleate, Span 80 (non-ionic surfactant). IBP removal of 89% was achieved at the optimum parameters of ELM. The current research demonstrated that a newly formulated ELM has great potential in removing a low concentration IBP from wastewater.

Study Of The Stability Of Water-In-Oil Emulsion Intended for the Extraction of Heavy Metals Application: Copper Ions

This work aims to optimize the parameters that affect the stability of a W/O emulsion to exploit it in the extraction of heavy metals contained in the liquid effluents. The study of the emulsion stability shows that; an emulsification time of 10 minutes, a surfactant concentration of Span80 equal to 3% (w/w), an extractant concentration of Triethylamine N(CH2CH3)3 equal to 5% (w/w), an internal phase concentration of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) of 0.75M, a volume ratio of membrane phase to internal phase of 1, a volume ratio of external phase to the emulsion of 20 and a stirring speed of 180 rpm; lead to the formation of a very stable emulsion with a very low rupture rate of around 1.92% after one hour of contact time. The results of extraction of copper ions revealed that under the best operational conditions, the extraction yield was closed to 93.33% for 20% extractant content, a contact time of 12 minutes, and an initial concentration of copper ions of 400 ppm. The application of this new membrane matrix based on phosphoric acid used as inner phase, sorbitan monooleate as a surfactant, and Triethylamine as extractant has been proven effective for extracting copper ions in water.

INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF SURFACTANTS OF VARIOUS NATURE ON THE RESUSPENDABILITY AND SEDIMENTATION STABILITY OF MENTHOL SUSPENSION

Исследовано влияние поверхностно-активных веществ (ПАВ) различной природы: твина-80, сорбитана моноолеата SPAN-80, додецилсульфата натрия, и синтанола промышленного производства ДС-10 на ресуспендируемость и седиментационную устойчивость водной суспензии ментола. The effect of surfactants of various natures (tween-80, sorbitan monooleate SPAN-80, sodium dodecyl sulfate, and industrial-grade synthanol DS-10) on the resuspendability and sedimentation stability of an aqueous menthol suspension was studied.

The extraction and process optimization of Cu (II) and Cd (II) using pickering emulsion liquid membrane

In the present study, the extraction of the divalent heavy metals like copper [Cu (II)] and cadmium [Cd (II)] using a Pickering Emulsion Liquid Membrane (PELM) has been investigated by using three different surfactants such as Amphiphilic silica nanowires (ASNWs), Aluminum oxide nanoparticles (Alumina) and Sorbitan monooleate (SPAN 80). The influence of the process parameters such as pH, the stripping phase concentration, the agitation speed, and the carrier concentration on the extraction efficiency have been examined to find the optimum conditions at which the maximum recovery of Cu (II) and Cd (II) could take place. At optimum conditions, the extraction efficiency of 89.77% and 91.19% for Cu (II) and Cd (II) ions were achieved. Non-edible oils were used as diluent in this present study to reduce the need for toxic organic solvents in preparing PELM. The impact of each process factor on the extraction efficiency of Cu (II) and Cd (II) ions has been verified using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The higher values of F and lower values of P (less than 0.05) indicates, pH is the most significant parameters on the percentage extraction of Cu (II) and Cd (II) using Taguchi design approach.

Stabilisation of Lutein and Lutein Esters with Polyoxyethylene Sorbitan Monooleate, Medium-Chain Triglyceride Oil and Lecithin

Lutein is a challenging compound to incorporate into food, as it is poorly soluble and unstable in aqueous solutions. In this study, the aim was to prepare stable encapsulates of lutein and lutein esters using feasible and straightforward techniques. Fine suspensions based on polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate and medium-chain triglyceride oil micelle-like units with 3.45% lutein esters or 1.9% lutein equivalents provided high encapsulation efficiencies of 79% and 83%, respectively. Lutein encapsulated in fine suspensions showed superior stability, as 86% was retained within the formulation over 250 days at 25 °C in the dark. Under the same storage conditions, only 38% of lutein remained in corresponding formulations. Higher encapsulation efficiencies were achieved with lecithin emulsions, at up to 99.3% for formulations with lutein, and up to 91.4% with lutein esters. In lecithin emulsions that were stored for 250 days, 17% and 80% of lutein and lutein esters, respectively, were retained within the formulations.