Optimizing silica encapsulation of living cells: in situ evaluation of celullar stress

MERCEDES PERULLINI, MATÍAS JOBBÁGY, MARIANA BERMÚDEZ-MORETTI, SUSANA CORREA-GARCIA, SARA ALDABE BILMES

CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS

ACS

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2007

0897-4756

The encapsulation of living cells in materials with good optical and mechanicalproperties often produces death or stress due to the release of toxic byproductsoriginated during the synthesis. We present here a method to assess the cellular stressthat silica entrapment exerts over living cells taking into account the main preparationvariables such as nature of silica source, protecting functional groups, total solidconcentration or indirect procedures. Measurement of the cellular stress status ofgenetically modified Sacharomyces cerevisiae, a true biological probe, allowed us toperform a quantitative analysis of cellular stress in a short time basis (compared toconventional long-term viability tests), opening the gate for more a sophisticatedapproach to optimize the synthesis conditions. In addition, the aforementioned findingsallowed the preparation of novel materials with enhanced optical and mechanicalproperties. The relation of cellular stress with initial viability is also discussed.