3D Nanostructures for Tissue Engineering, Cancer Therapy, and Gene Delivery

Figure 4

Self-assembly process used in developing 3D scaffolds. (a) An overview of the filamentous receptor cell nanostructures [43]. )b) Chemical composition of (A) amphiphilic peptides and (B) molecular sequence. Collection of colours: C, black; H, white; O, red; N, blue; P, cyan; and S, yellow. (C) Amphiphilic peptide self-assembly schemes into a cylindrical micelle. (c) Microscopic images of (A) negative stain (phosphotungstic acid) TEM of the self-assembled nanofibers before covalent capture, (B) vitreous ice cryo-TEM of the fibers reveals the diameter of the fibers, (C) positive stain (uranyl acetate) TEM of the self-assembled nanofibers after oxidative crosslinking, and (D) thin section TEM of positively stained (uranyl acetate) nanofibers after oxidative crosslinking and embedding in epoxy resin [37].

(a)

(b)

(c)