Commercial collagen membranes are used in oral surgical procedures as scaffolds for bone deposition in guided bone regeneration. Here, we have enriched them with graphene oxide (GO) via a simple non-covalent functionalization, exploiting the capacity of oxygenated carbon functional moieties of GO to interact through hydrogen bonding with collagen. In the present paper, the GO-coated membranes have been characterized in terms of stability, nano-roughness, biocompatibility and induction of inflammatory response in human primary gingival fibroblast cells. The obtained coated membranes are demonstrated not to leak GO in the bulk solution, and to change some features of the membrane, such as stiffness and adhesion between the membrane and the atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip. Moreover, the presence of GO increases the roughness and the total surface exposed to the cells, as demonstrated by AFM analyses. The obtained material is biocompatible, and does not induce inflammation in the tested cells.

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We performed a study of the nonlinear optical properties of chemically purified chitin and insect cuticle using two-photon excited autofluorescence (TPEF) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. Excitation spectrum, fluorescence time, polarization sensitivity, and bleaching speed were measured. We have found that the maximum autofluorescence signal requires an excitation wavelength below 850 nm. At longer wavelengths, we were able to penetrate more than 150-um deep into the sample through the chitinous structures. The excitation power was kept below 10 mW (at the sample) in order to diminish bleaching. The SHG from the purified chitin was confirmed by spectral- and time-resolved measurements. Two cave-dwelling, depigmented, insect species were analyzed and three-dimensional images of the cuticular structures were obtained.

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