Abstract: A hydrogel tissue engineering scaffold having microbubbles dispersed therein is disclosed. Also, a system for cell culturing including a controller and actuator to apply dynamic deformational loading to a hydrogel is disclosed. Also disclosed are methods for producing hydrogels with microbubbles and for culturing cells using hydrogels with microbubbles.

Abstract: A hydrogel tissue engineering scaffold having microbubbles dispersed therein is disclosed. Also, a system for cell culturing including a controller and actuator to apply dynamic deformational loading to a hydrogel is disclosed. Also disclosed are methods for producing hydrogels with microbubbles and for culturing cells using hydrogels with microbubbles.

Abstract: A hydrogel tissue engineering scaffold having microbubbles dispersed therein is disclosed. Also, a system for cell culturing including a controller and actuator to apply dynamic deformational loading to a hydrogel is disclosed. Also disclosed are methods for producing hydrogels with microbubbles and for culturing cells using hydrogels with microbubbles.

Abstract: Microbubbles can be injected into the bloodstream of a patient, for example, a cancer patient undergoing a treatment specifically targeting a biological process in a tumor. The injected microbubbles can act as vascular contrast agents, which can be detected in vivo using high-frequency ultrasound imaging. The microbubbles can have a surface chemistry that allows them to bind to molecular targets in the tumor vasculature. After injection, the microbubbles can selectively adhere to endothelia expressing a target receptor. The selective adhesion can be used to quantify the tumor vasculature in vivo. By imaging the adhered microbubbles with ultrasound, an indication of how tumor vasculature is affected by a specific cancer treatment can be obtained. Such techniques can be used in a clinical setting for rapid determination of anti-cancer treatment efficacy for individual patients.

Abstract: Thiolated polyethylenimine (PEI) polymers can be covalently attached to lipid shell microbubbles. The PEI polymer can be modified with polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains to improve biocompatibility. The covalent attachment of the PEI polymer to the microbubble shell can result from a bond between a free sulfhydryl group (SH) of the thiolated PEI and a free maleimide group on the microbubble shell. DNA can be electrostatically bound to the PEI polymers to form polyplexes. A plurality of the polyplex-microbubble hybrids can be injected into a patient and can be imaged via ultrasound. While circulating in the bloodstream, and in particular, within a region of interest, high-pressure, low-frequency acoustic energy can be applied, thereby causing destruction by cavitation. Such cavitation can transiently increase the permeability of the endothelial vasculature thereby allowing plasmid DNA of the polyplexes carried by the microbubbles to be delivered to targeted cells.

Abstract: A hydrogel tissue engineering scaffold having microbubbles dispersed therein is disclosed. Also, a system for cell culturing including a controller and actuator to apply dynamic deformational loading to a hydrogel is disclosed. Also disclosed are methods for producing hydrogels with microbubbles and for culturing cells using hydrogels with microbubbles.

Abstract: In one aspect of the disclosed subject matter, a method for isolating target microbubbles having a predetermined size range from polydisperse microbubbles is disclosed. The method includes applying a first centrifugal field having a first field strength to a suspension comprising the polydisperse microbubbles for a first duration of time, thereby forming a first infranatant comprising at least a portion of target microbubbles and a first supernatant cake comprising microbubbles having a greater size than the target microbubbles; removing the first supernatant cake; applying a second centrifugal field having a second field strength to the first infranatant for a second duration of time, the second field strength being greater than the first field strength, thereby forming a second supernatant cake comprising at least a portion of the target microbubbles and second infranatant comprising microbubbles having a smaller size than the target microbubbles; and isolating the second supernatant cake.