Fluorescent silica particles for monitoring oxygen levels in three‐dimensional heterogeneous cellular structures

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2012-04-17

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Miguel A. Acosta, Melissa Velasquez , Katelyn Williams, Julia M. Ross, Jennie B. Leach, Fluorescent silica particles for monitoring oxygen levels in three‐dimensional heterogeneous cellular structures, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Volume 109, Issue 10, 2012, https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.24530

Rights

This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Miguel A. Acosta, Melissa Velasquez , Katelyn Williams, Julia M. Ross, Jennie B. Leach, Fluorescent silica particles for monitoring oxygen levels in three‐dimensional heterogeneous cellular structures, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Volume 109, Issue 10, 2012, https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.24530, which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bit.24530. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions."

Abstract

Bacterial biofilms are a major obstacle challenging the development of more effective therapies to treat implant infections. Oxygen availability to bacterial cells has been implicated in biofilm formation and planktonic cell detachment; however, there are insufficient tools available to measure oxygen concentrations within complex three-dimensional structures with ~1 μm resolution. Such measurements may complement measures of biofilm structure and cell activity to provide a more comprehensive understanding of biofilm biology. Thus, we developed oxygensensing microparticles specifically designed to characterize oxygen transport through the volume of bacterial biofilms. The Stöber method was used to synthesize monodisperse silica microparticles of approximately the same size as a bacterium (~1 μm). Two fluorophores, oxygensensitive Ru(Ph₂phen₃)Cl₂, and the reference fluorophore Nile blue chloride were immobilized on the surface of the particles. We demonstrate application of the microparticles toward measuring the oxygen concentration profiles within a live Staphylococcus aureus biofilm.