Investıgatıon of nanoporous anodızed alumınıum oxıde membranes for drug delıvery and neural tıssue engıneerıng applıcatıons

With specific and controllable features, AAO membranes are unique materials having wide range of biomedical applications from drug delivery to neural tissue engineering. The first part of this thesis is related to targeted drug delivery with multifunctional composite SNTs. A template synthesis method that employs the whole interior volume of SNTs for drug loading has been utilized. Upon targeting with FA, multifunctional nanoparticles were created which showed extensive cytotoxicity towards cancers cells (SK BR-3) compared with healthy ones (MCF-12A). A prominent feature of SNTs is the greater extent of cell death with lesser effective drug concentrations. The details of SNT fabrication, modification and characterization as well as the viability studies with cancer and normal cells are described. To characterize AAO membranes, SNT and FA modification of SNT outer surface a variety of techniques involving SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XPS, Zeta Potential Measurement were utilized. The second part of this thesis proposes the investigation of CNM prepared from AAO templates for neural tissue engineering applications by utilizing topographic, electrical and chemical cues. In order to produce CNM, first AAO with ordered array or nanopores having ~100 nm and ~300 nm pore diameter was synthesized by two or one step anodization in different electrolytes. After characterization of AAO by SEM, the membrane was coated with carbon PVD to obtain conductive CNMs. To characterize CNMs; SEM, TEM, EDX, XPS and DC current/voltage sourcemeter were used. The cell experiments are in progress which will compare the cell viability, cell adhesion and neurite extension on bare AAO films and on CNMs with or without electrical stimulus. Key words: AAO, SNT, Cancer, CNM, Neuron.