Polymeric biomaterials for biophotonic applications

Abstract

With the growing importance of optical techniques in medical diagnosis and treatment, there exists a pressing need to develop and optimize materials platform for biophotonic applications. Particularly, the design of biocompatible and biodegradable materials with desired optical, mechanical, chemical, and biological properties is required to enable clinically relevant biophotonic devices for translating in vitro optical techniques into in situ and in vivo use. This technological trend propels the development of natural and synthetic polymeric biomaterials to replace traditional brittle, nondegradable silica glass based optical materials. In this review, we present an overview of the advances in polymeric optical material development, optical device design and fabrication techniques, and the accompanying applications to imaging, sensing and phototherapy.

Keywords: Biomaterials; Biophotonics; Imaging; Phototherapy; Sensing.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Living Biomaterials. (a) Experimental scheme of the fabrication of a bio-WG by trapping E. coli using a 980 nm laser; (b) SEM image of E. coli bacteria used to form the bio-WG; (c) SEM image of the ATF used to form the bio-WG, inset shows the enlarged view of the ATF tip; (d) Microscope image of the 644 nm red light transmitted via the bio-WG (white arrows indicate output points of the transmitted light). Reprinted with permission from Ref. [26]. Copyright 2013, American Chemical Society. (e) Experimental scheme of the formation of branched E. coli cell structures via 980 nm laser. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [27]. Copyright 2015, John Wiley and Sons.

Fig. 2

Naturally derived polymers. (a) 50 μm thick optical silk elements ((1) a clear film, (2) an image through a microlens array, (3) a 2D diffractive optical element, (4) a diffraction grating, and (5) a white light hologram). Reprinted by permission from Springer Customer Service Centre GmbH: Springer Nature, Nature Photonics [34], (A new route for silk, Fiorenzo G. Omenetto, David L. Kaplan). Copyright 2008. (b) (1, 3, 4) AFM image of a nanopatterned silk optical grating, and (2) diffracted orders from white light propagation through the grating. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [42]. Copyright 2008, American Chemical Society. (c) AFM images of (1) a grating imprinted on a silk film and (2) a grating master pattern. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [44]. Copyright 2010, John Wiley and Sons. (d) (1) Schematic of direct-write assembly of silk waveguides and (2) optical images of printed silk waveguides. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [36]. Copyright 2009, John Wiley and Sons. (e) Chitosan coted sensor before and after coating. Reprinted from Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Vol 169, L.H. Chen,T. Li,C.C. Chan,R. Menon,P. Balamurali,M. Shaillender,B. Neu,X.M. Ang,P. Zu,W.C. Wong,K.C. Leong, Chitosan based fiberoptic Fabry–Perot humidity sensor, 167–172, Copyright (2012), with permission from Elsevier [46]. (f) (1) Images and (2) schematic structure of chitosan acetate based POW. Reprinted from Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol 244, Alexander Mironenko, Evgeny Modin, Alexander Sergeev, Sergey Voznesenskiy, Svetlana Bratskaya, Fabrication and optical properties of chitosan/Ag nanoparticles thin film composites, 457–463, Copyright (2014), with permission from Elsevier [48]. (g) Cross section of a cellulose MPOF. Reprinted from Optics Communications, Vol 283, Dongdong Li, Lili Wang, Cellulose acetate polymer film modified microstructured polymer optical fiber towards a nitrite optical probe, 2841–2844, Copyright (2010), with permission from Elsevier [52].

Fig. 3

Synthetic non-degradable polymers: (a) Schematic of a flexible light guiding PEG hydrogel with encapsulated cells acting as sensors and cytokine and hormone producers in vivo; (b) Demonstration of TIR within the PEG hydrogel. Reprinted by permission from Springer Customer Service Centre GmbH: Springer Nature, Nature Photonics [25], (Light-guiding hydrogels for cell-based sensing and optogenetic synthesis in vivo, Myunghwan Choi, Jin Woo Choi, Seonghoon Kim, Sedat Nizamoglu, Sei Kwang Hahn et al.). Copyright 2013. (c) Schematic of the surface architecture of a poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogel based antibody sensor. Reprinted from Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Vol 25, Yi Wang, ChunJen Huang, Ulrich Jonas, Tianxin Wei, Jakub Dostalek, Wolfgang Knoll, Biosensor based on hydrogel optical waveguide spectroscopy, 1663–1668, Copyright (2010), with permission from Elsevier [55]. (d) Fabrication of microsphere-tipped PDMS MSMP via direct drawing. Reprinted by permission from Springer Customer Service Centre GmbH: Springer Nature, Nature Communications [58], (Microsphere-assisted fabrication of high aspect-ratio elastomeric micropillars and waveguides, Jungwook Paek, Jaeyoun Kim). Copyright 2014. (e) (1) Margaritaria nobilis fruit, (2) elongated blue surface cells from the fruit surface, (3) SEM of stacked cells in the outer endocarp layers, (4) SEM of concentric flattened cylindrical structure of single cells, (5)TEM image of the layered architecture within a single cell, (6) schematic of the fabrication of artificial photonic fibers, (7) optical images of PDMS based rolled-up multilayer fibers, (8) SEM of the cross section of multilayer fiber, and (9) SEM of the individual cladding layers. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [63]. Copyright 2013, John Wiley and Sons.

Fig. 4

Synthetic biodegradable polymers. (a) (1) Biopolymer waveguide bundle displaying increasing photoactivation within dyed porcine skin (indicated by the propagation of photobleaching in the dye), and (2) schematic of the experimental procedure of waveguide-assisted photochemical tissue bonding using the biodegradable waveguide [65]. (b) (1) Bright field image and (2) fluorescence image of Vitamin B microspheres on a PLLA substrate. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [67]. Copyright 2013, John Wiley and Sons. (c) Citrate based step index optical fiber demonstrating (1) flexibility, (2) core cladding structure, (3, 4) light guidance, and (5) image projection. Reprinted from Biomaterials, Vol 143, Dingying Shan, Chenji Zhang, Surge Kalaba, Nikhil Mehta, Gloria B. Kim, Zhiwen Liu, Jian Yang, Flexible biodegradable citrate-based polymeric step-index optical fiber, 142–148, Copyright (2017), with permission from Elsevier [24].

Fig. 5

Combinations of biomaterials. – (a) Schematic of the fabrication of PEG/Ca-Alginate core-cladded optical fibers; (b) Phase contrast images of core-cladded fibers with variable sizes; (c) Light guidance of a core-cladded fiber (1) in air and (2) between porcine tissue slices. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [79]. Copyright 2015, John Wiley and Sons. (d) Mechanical properties of alginate-polyacrylamide hydrogel optical fibers: (1) Photos of 3X stretching of a hydrogel fiber, (2) light transmission through a hydrogel fiber in the relaxed (left) and stretched (right) conditions, and (3) illustration of strain dependent optical loss; (e) Alginate-polyacrylamide fiber with 3 sensing regions using rose Bengal (RB), methylene blue (MB), and fluorescein (FL) dyes. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [80]. Copyright 2016, John Wiley and Sons. (f) A glucose sensitive hydrogel optical fiber implanted in porcine tissue; (g) Schematic of the design of the glucose sensitive hydrogel optical fibers. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [81]. Copyright 2017, John Wiley and Sons.