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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biomaterials. 2011 Aug 27;32(33):8343–8355. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.05.001

Fig 9.

Fig 9

Ex vivo evaluation of viral transport through the PBA-SHA SMP using human cervical tissue. Cervical tissues were inoculated with 300 µL of photoactivatable-GFP labeled HIV for 4 h. (a & b) Z-scan prior to photo-activation for background (green) deletion, (c) cervical tissue after 4 h of exposure to PA-GFP-Vpr HIV (red) and photo-activation and (d) cervical tissue with PBA-SHA SMP (blue) after 4 h of exposure to PA-GFP-Vpr HIV (red) and photo-activation. The Z-scans reveal localization of the virions in the topmost layer of the SMP, suggesting that the polymer network poses an impermeable barrier to the transport of virions. In contrast, the Z-scan on the tissue with no SMP reveals penetration of the virions into the interstitial space within the columnar epithelium of the cervical tissue.