Hydrolytic degradations of biodegradable poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), polylactide (PLA) and their derivatives were explored by kinetic and structure methods at 37 and 70°C in phosphate buffer. It was revealed the kinetic profiles for copolymer PHBV (20% of 3-hydroxyvalerate) and the blend PHB-PLA (1:1 wt. ratio). The intensity of biopolymer hydrolysis depending on temperature is characterized by total weight loss and the viscosity-averaged molecular weight decrement (ΔMW) as well as by WAXS and AMF techniques. Characterization of PHB and PHBV includes both ΔMW and crystallinity evolution (x-ray diffraction) as well as the AFM analysis of PHB film surfaces before and after aggressive medium exposition. The degradation is enhanced in the series PHBV < PHB < PHB-PLA blend < PLA. The impact of MW on the biopolymer hydrolysis is shown.

Exosomes are small vesicles which are produced by the cells and released into the surrounding space. They can transfer biomolecules into recipient cells. The main goal of the work was to study the exosome involvement in the cell transfer of hormonal resistance. The experiments were performed on in vitro cultured estrogen-dependent MCF-7 breast cancer cells and MCF-7 sublines resistant to SERM tamoxifen and/or biguanide metformin, which exerts its anti-proliferative effect, at least in a part, via the suppression of estrogen machinery. The exosomes were purified by differential ultracentrifugation, cell response to tamoxifen was determined by MTT test, and the level and activity of signaling proteins were determined by Western blot and reporter analysis. We found that the treatment of the parent MCF-7 cells with exosomes from the resistant cells within 14 days lead to the partial resistance of the MCF-7 cells to antiestrogen drugs. The primary resistant cells and the cells with the exosome-induced resistance were characterized with these common features: decrease in ERα activity and parallel activation of Akt and AP-1, NF-κB, and SNAIL1 transcriptional factors. In general, we evaluate the established results as the evidence of the possible exosome involvement in the transferring of the hormone/metformin resistance in breast cancer cells.

The improvement of biomedical properties, e.g. biocompatibility, of poly(3-hydroxyalkanoates) (PHAs) by copolymerization is a promising trend in bioengineering. We used strain Azotobacter chroococcum 7B, an effective producer of PHAs, for biosynthesis of not only poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and its main copolymer, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHB-HV), but also alternative copolymer, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PHB-PEG). In biosynthesis we used sucrose as the primary carbon source and valeric acid or poly(ethylene glycol) 300 (PEG 300) as additional carbon sources. The chemical structure of PHB-PEG and PHB-HV was confirmed by 1H nuclear-magnetic resonance (1H NMR) analysis. The physico-chemical properties (molecular weight, crystallinity, hydrophilicity, surface energy) and surface morphology of films from PHB copolymers were studied. To study copolymers biocompatibility in vitro the protein adsorption and COS-1 fibroblasts growth on biopolymer films by XTT assay were analyzed. Both copolymers had changed physico-chemical properties compared to PHB homopolymer: PHB-HV and PHB-PEG had less crystallinity than PHB; PHB-HV was more hydrophobic than PHB in contrast to PHB-PEG appeared to have greater hydrophilicity than PHB; whereas the morphology of polymer films did not differ significantly. The protein adsorption to PHB-PEG was greater and more uniform than to PHB and PHB-PEG copolymer promoted better growth of COS-1 fibroblasts compared with PHB homopolymer. Thus, despite low EG-monomers content in bacterial origin PHB-PEG copolymer, this polymer demonstrated significant improvement in biocompatibility in contrast to PHB and PHB-HV copolymers, which may be coupled with increased protein adsorption and hydrophilicity of PEG-containing copolymer.