Browsing by Author "Chen, Wan-Ling"

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Annealing Effect on Electrospun Polymer Fibers and Their Transformation into Polymer Microspheres
(2012-02-27)
Fan, Ping-Wen
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Chen, Wan-Ling
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Lee, Ting-Hsien
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Chen, Jiun-Tai
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應用化學系
Electrospinning is a simple and convenient technique to produce polymer fibers with diameters ranging from several nanometers to a few micrometers. Different types of polymer fibers have been prepared by electrospinning for various applications. Among different post-treatment methods of electrospun polymer fibers, the annealing process plays a critical role in controlling the fiber properties. The morphology changes of electrospun polymer fibers under annealing, however, have been little studied. Here we investigate the annealing effect of electrospun poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) fibers and their transformation into PMMA microspheres. PMMA fibers with an average size of 2.39 mu m are first prepared by electrospinning a 35 wt% PMMA solution in dimethylformamide. After the electrospun fibers are thermally annealed in ethylene glycol, a non-solvent for PMMA, the surfaces of the fibers undulate and transform into microspheres driven by the Rayleigh instability. The driving force of the transformation process is the minimization of the interfacial energy between the polymer fibers and ethylene glycol. The sizes of the microspheres fit well with the theoretical predictions. Longer annealing times are found to be required at lower temperatures to obtain the microspheres.
Effect of Thermal Annealing on the Surface Properties of Electrospun Polymer Fibers
(2014-02-01)
Chen, Jiun-Tai
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Chen, Wan-Ling
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Fan, Ping-Wen
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Yao, I-Chun
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應用化學系
Electrospun polymer fibers are gaining importance because of their unique properties and applications in areas such as drug delivery, catalysis, or tissue engineering. Most studies to control the morphology and properties of electrospun polymer fibers focus on changing the electrospinning conditions. The effects of post-treatment processes on the morphology and properties of electrospun polymer fibers, however, are little studied. Here, the effect of thermal annealing on the surface properties of electrospun polymer fibers is investigated. Poly(methyl methacrylate) and polystyrene fibers are fist prepared by electrospinning, followed by thermal annealing processes. Upon thermal annealing, the surface roughness of the electrospun polymer fibers decreases. The driving force of the smoothing process is the minimization of the interfacial energy between polymer fibers and air. The water contact angles of the annealed polymer fibers also decrease with the annealing time.
Hierarchical Structures by Wetting Porous Templates with Electrospun Polymer Fibers
(2012-01-01)
Chen, Jiun-Tai
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Chen, Wan-Ling
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Fan, Ping-Wen
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應用化學系
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Department of Applied Chemistry
We demonstrate a simple route to fabricate hierarchical structures by combining the electrospinning technique and the wetting of porous templates. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) fibers are first prepared by electrospinning and are collected on a glass substrate. The PMMA fibers are then brought into contact with an anodic aluminum oxide template. Upon thermal annealing above the glass transition temperature of PMMA, wetting of the polymer chains into the nanopores occurs. After the removal of the AAO template, ordered arrays of nanorods on polymer fibers are obtained. This approach is also applied to polystyrene (PS), and similar structures are obtained. This work provides a promising approach to fabricate hierarchical polymer structures with sizes that can be controlled over the nanoscopic and microscopic length scales.
Novel Lactulose and Melibiose Targeting Autophagy to Reduce PolyQ Aggregation in Cell Models of Spinocerebellar Ataxia 3
(2016)
Lin, Chih-Hsin
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Wu, Yih-Ru
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Yang, Jinn-Moon
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Chen, Wan-Ling
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Chao, Chih-Ying
Trehalose, a chemical chaperone and mTOR-independent autophagy enhancer, has shown promise in models of Huntington\'s disease, Parkinson\'s disease and tauopathies. In this study, two trehalase analogs, lactulose and melibiose, were examined for their potentials in spinocerebellar ataxia treatment. Using a SCA3 ATXN3/Q(75)-GFP cell model, we found that the ATXN3/Q(75) aggregation was significantly prohibited by lactulose and melibiose because of their abilities to up-regulate autophagy. Meanwhile, lactulose and melibiose reduced reactive oxygen species production in ATXN3/Q(75) cells. Both of them further inhibited the ATXN3/Q(75) aggregation in neuronally differentiated SH-SY5Y cells. These findings suggest the therapeutic applications of novel trehalose analogs in polyglutamine aggregation-associated neurodegenerative diseases.
Rayleigh-Instability-Driven Morphology Transformation by Thermally Annealing Electrospun Polymer Fibers on Substrates
(1970-01-01)
Fan, Ping-Wen
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Chen, Wan-Ling
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Lee, Ting-Hsien
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Chiu, Yu-Jing
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Chen, Jiun-Tai
"Electrospinning has been widely used to prepare polymer fibers with diameters ranging from a few nanometers to micrometers. While most studies focus on controlling the sizes and morphologies of electrospun polymer fibers by changing electrospinning conditions, the effect of post-treatments such as thermal annealing on the properties of electrospun polymer fibers has been less studied. Here, we investigate the effect of thermal annealing on the morphology changes of electrospun polystyrene (PS) fibers on substrates. Different from annealing the fibers in a uniform environment, annealing the fibers on substrates results in a substrate-dependent morphology transformation. When the electrospun PS fibers are annealed on a glass substrate, wetting of the fibers on the glass substrate occurs. When the electrospun PS fibers are annealed on a poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-coated substrate, a Rayleigh-instability-driven morphology transformation is observed. The polymer fibers transform into hemispherical polymer particles caused by the lower surface tension of PS than that of PMMA and the interfacial tension between PS and PMMA. This transformation process is influenced by the annealing time and temperature. The characteristic time of the transformation process is shorter when the sample is annealed at a higher temperature because of the lower polymer viscosity. The size of the polymer particles fits well with the theoretical prediction, which is dependent on the initial fiber diameter and is independent of the annealing temperature."
The potential of lactulose and melibiose, two novel trehalase-indigestible and autophagy-inducing disaccharides, for polyQ-mediated neurodegenerative disease treatment
(2015-05-01)
Lee, Guan-Chiun
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Lin, Chih-Hsin
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Tao, Yu-Chen
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Yang, Jinn-Moon
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Hsu, Kai-Cheng
The unique property of trehalose encourages its pharmaceutical application in aggregation-mediated neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer\'s, Parkinson\'s, and many polyglutamine (polyQ)-mediated diseases. However, trehalose is digested into glucose by trehalase and which reduced its efficacy in the disease target tissues. Therefore, searching trehalase-indigestible analogs of trehalose is a potential strategy to enhance therapeutic effect. In this study, two trehalase-indigestible trehalose analogs, lactulose and melibiose, were selected through compound topology and functional group analyses. Hydrogen-bonding network analyses suggest that the elimination of the hydrogen bond between the linker ether and aspartate 321 (D321) of human trehalase is the key for lactulose and melibiose to avoid the hydrolyzation. Using polyQ-mediated spinocerebellar ataxia type 17 (SCA17) cell and slice cultures, we found the aggregation was significantly prohibited by trehalose, lactulose, and melibiose, which may through up-regulating of autophagy. These findings suggest the therapeutic applications of trehalase-indigestible trehalose analogs in aggregation-associated neurodegenerative diseases. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.