Rf 5301 pc fluoro spectrophotometer

The FI-CL system used in this work is shown in Fig. 2. Two peristaltic pumps (HL-2D, Shanghai B Qingpu Huxi Instruments Factory, China) were used to deliver all chemicals. PTFE flow tubes (0.8 mm i.d.) were used to connect all components in the system. A six-port injection valve (CIVI, German), equipped with a loop of 100 µL, was used for sample introduction. The CL signal was monitored by a BPCL ultra-weak luminescence analyzer (Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China), consisting of a flat coil glass flow cell facing the window of the photomultiplier tube (PMT). Data acquisition and treatment were performed with BPCL software. The UV-absorbance was detected with the UV-2600 spectrophotometer (Shimadzu Ltd, Japan). The CL spectrum was obtained with the RF-5301PC fluorospectrophotometer (Shimadzu Ltd, Japan).Fig. 2

Schematic diagram of FI-CL flow system. Pump: peristaltic pump, Valve: a six-port valve, M: mixing point, PMT: photomultiplier tube.

Fig. 2

The photoluminescence spectra of the sericin solution and the sericin hydrogel were acquired using an RF-5301 PC fluoro spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, USA). The slit width for the excitation light and the emission light was set to 5 nm and 3 nm, respectively. The fluorescence microscope (Olympus IX71, Japan) equipped with a DP73 camera was used to examine sericin scaffolds under the light with the different wavelengths. The images were taken with the software cellSens standard 1.7 (Olympus, Japan). For in vivo real-time tracking analysis, the sericin hydrogels were injected subcutaneously and into the muscle of the rear limbs of Kunming mice at the age of 5 weeks (Department of Experimental Animals, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China). The alginate scaffolds were used as the controls. Mice were imaged using the Xenogen IVIS Lumina II in vivo imaging system with the software Living Image 4.3 (Caliper Life Sciences, USA). All the animal experiments were carried out in accordance with the guidelines evaluated and approved by the Ethics Committee of Huazhong University of Science & Technology (Wuhan, China).