Experimental Investigation of Temperature Influence on Nanoparticle Adhesion in an Artificial Blood Vessel

BACKGROUND: A good understanding of the adhesion behaviors of the nanocarriers in microvessels in chemo-hyperthermia synergistic therapy is conducive to nanocarrier design for targeted drug delivery. METHODS: In this study, we constructed an artificial blood vessel system using gelatins with a complete endothelial monolayer formed on the inner vessel wall. The numbers of adhered NPs under different conditions were measured, as well as the interaction forces between the arginine–glycine–aspartic acid (RGD) ligands and endothelial cells. RESULTS: The experimental results on the adhesion of ligand–coated nanoparticles (NPs) with different sizes and morphologies in the blood vessel verified that the gelatin-based artificial vessel possessed good cytocompatibility and mechanical properties, which are suitable for the investigation on NP adhesion characteristics in microvessels. When the temperature deviated from 37 °C, an increase or decrease in temperature resulted in a decrease in the number of adhered NPs, but the margination probability of NP adhesion increased at high temperatures due to the enhanced Brownian movement and flow disturbance. It is found that the effect of cooling was less than that of heating according to the observed changes in cell morphology and a decrease in cell activity under the static and perfusion culture conditions within the temperature range of 25 °C–43 °C. Furthermore, the measurement results of change in the RGD ligand-cell interaction with temperature showed good agreement with those in the number of adhered NPs. CONCLUSION: The Findings suggest that designing ligands that can bind to the receptor and are least susceptible to temperature variation can be an effective means to enhance drug retention.