Nakajima N, Ikada Y
Research Center for Biomedical Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan.
J Biomater Sci Polym Ed. 1994;6(8):751-9. doi: 10.1163/156856295x00139.
The fusogenic activity of seven water-soluble polymers was investigated using L929 cells in a monolayer state. Among these polymers, only two, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and EPAN 680 were capable of inducing the membrane fusion of L929 cells. EPAN 680 is an ABA type block copolymer composed of 80% ethylene oxide(A) and 20% propylene oxide(B) sequences with a total molecular weight of 8800. Evaluation of the polymer hydrophobicity indicated that there was no clear correlation between it and the fusogenic activity of the polymer, although highly hydrophobic polymers caused cell shrinkage without membrane fusion. Differential scanning calorimetry on these polymers strongly suggested that hydration of the polymers in culture medium had a large effect on their fusogenic activity. It was concluded that the assembly of cell membranes, stabilized by water molecules, was disturbed by strong interaction with the polymer molecules having a strong hydration power, resulting in membrane fusion.
使用单层状态的L929细胞研究了七种水溶性聚合物的融合活性。在这些聚合物中，只有两种，即聚乙二醇（PEG）和EPAN 680能够诱导L929细胞的膜融合。EPAN 680是一种ABA型嵌段共聚物，由80%的环氧乙烷（A）和20%的环氧丙烷（B）序列组成，总分子量为8800。聚合物疏水性评估表明，尽管高度疏水的聚合物会导致细胞收缩而不发生膜融合，但聚合物疏水性与其融合活性之间没有明显的相关性。对这些聚合物进行差示扫描量热法分析强烈表明，聚合物在培养基中的水合作用对其融合活性有很大影响。得出的结论是，由水分子稳定的细胞膜组装受到与具有强水合能力的聚合物分子的强相互作用的干扰，从而导致膜融合。
