Deposition of Oral Bacteria and Polystyrene Particles to Quartz and Dental Enamel in a Parallel Plate and Stagnation Point Flow Chamber

The aim of this paper is to determine to what extent (i) deposition of oral bacteria and polystyrene particles, (ii) onto quartz and dental enamel with and without a salivary conditioning film, (iii) in a parallel plate (PP) and stagnation point (SP) flow chamber and at common Peclet numbers are comparable. All three bacterial strains showed different adhesion behaviors, and even Streptococcus mitis BMS, possessing a similar cell surface hydrophobicity as polystyrene particles, did not mimic polystyrene particles in its adhesion behavior, possibly as a result of the more negative ζ potentials of the polystyrene particles. The stationary endpoint adhesion of all strains, including polystyrene particles, was lower in the presence of a salivary conditioning film, while also desorption probabilities under flow were higher in the presence of a conditioning film than in its absence. Deposition onto quartz and enamel surfaces was different, but without a consistent trend valid for all strains and polystyrene particles. It is concluded that differences in experimental results exist, and the process of bacterial deposition to enamel surfaces cannot be modeled by using polystyrene particles and quartz collector surfaces.     

Directed control of electroosmotic flow in nonaqueous electrolytes using poly(ethylene glycol) coated capillaries

Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-coated capillaries exhibit unique properties in nonaqueous electrolytes. Immobilized PEG interacts significantly with different cations present in nonaqueous electrolytes. This can induce a positive surface charge on PEG-coated capillaries and results in an adjustable anodic electroosmotic flow (EOF) in nonaqueous electrolytes whereas a reduced cathodic EOF is observed in aqueous electrolytes. The EOF can reversibly be adjusted by the variation of the electrolyte constitution, namely the type of the solvent used and the nature and concentration of background cations. In methanol and especially in acetonitrile electrolytes the magnitude and also the direction of EOF is strongly dependent on the water content. Using different alkali metal cations, the EOF can be increased, reduced, or even reversed depending on the nature of the cation. The directed manipulation of EOF in methanolic electrolytes using PEG-coated capillaries was applied for optimization of nonaqueous capillary electrophoretic separations of acidic compounds with regard to reproducibility, resolution, and analysis time.     

Microchip electrophoresis for chiral separations

Microchip electrophoresis (MCE) is a promising new technique for the separation of enantiomers. This recently introduced technique enables chiral separations to be performed in seconds on tiny micromachined devices. This review is intended to give a brief introduction into the principles of chiral separations with MCE with regard to methodology and instrumentation. Different approaches to realize chiral separations in microfluidic devices are described and discussed. This review gives an overview of original work done in this field with emphasis on approaches to improve detection and resolution in chiral MCE.     

High-speed chiral separations on a microchip with UV detection

Fast chiral separations of a variety of basic and acidic compounds could be realized on microfluidic quartz chips. A microchip electrophoresis instrument equipped with a linear imaging UV-detector was used. The usually applied but troublesome fluorescence tagging in order to enable fluorescence detection could be omitted. Using sulfated cyclodextrins as chiral selectors baseline separation of 19 compounds could be achieved in less than 1 min with high reproducibility. The relative standard deviation of migration time was below 7%. The fastest separation could be performed in 2.5 s which is to date the fastest separation of enantiomers reported. It was possible to apply microchip electrophoresis (MCE) for the determination of high enantiomeric excess (ee) values, as exemplarily shown for pseudoephedrin where 2% of the minor enantiomer could reliably be determined beside high amount of the other isomer. Successful separation of a mixture of 3 chiral drugs could be performed in a single run in less than 11 s utilizing a separation length of only 12 mm. These results show that MCE has great potential for fast chiral analysis and high-throughput screening.     

An integrated on-chip sirtuin assay

A microchip-based assay to monitor the conversion of peptide substrates by human recombinant sirtuin 1 (hSIRT1) is presented. For this purpose a fused silica microchip consisting of a microfluidic separation structure with an integrated serpentine micromixer has been used. As substrate for the assay, we used a 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl (Fmoc)-labeled tetrapeptide derived from the amino acid sequence of p53, a known substrate of hSIRT1. The Fmoc group at the N-terminus resulting from solid-phase peptide synthesis enabled deep UV laser-induced fluorescence detection with excitation at 266 nm. The enzymatic reaction of 0.1 U/μL hSIRT1 was carried out within the serpentine micromixer using a 400 μM solution of the peptide in buffer. In order to reduce protein adsorption, the reaction channel was dynamically coated with hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose. The substrate and the deacetylated product were separated by microchip electrophoresis on the same chip. The approach was successfully utilized to screen various SIRT inhibitors.     

PDMS free-flow electrophoresis chips with integrated partitioning bars for bubble segregation

In this work, a microfluidic free-flow electrophoresis device with a novel approach for preventing gas bubbles from entering the separation area is presented. This is achieved by integrating partitioning bars to reduce the channel depth between electrode channels and separation chamber in order to obtain electrical contact and simultaneously prevent bubbles from entering the separation area. The three-layer sandwich chip features a reusable carrier plate with integrated ports for fluidic connection combined with a softlithographically cast microfluidic PDMS layer and a sealing glass slide. This design allows for a straightforward and rapid chip prototyping process. The performance of the device is demonstrated by free-flow zone electrophoretic separations of fluorescent dye mixtures as well as by the separation of labeled amines and amino acids with separation voltages up to 297 V.