ABSTRACT
Figure 3.4 Design of a fiber optic with additional layers of polysulfone to increase the physical strength of the matrix.
addition). To determine the sensitivity of the new “modified” fibers,
they were exposed to environmental toxicants and compared to
fibers with alginate only. Two environmental toxicants were used,
atrazine and mitomycin C. New modifications allowed stronger cell
response to these toxicants and thus the highest sensitivity of 10
pg/mL for atrazine and 0.008 ppb for mitomycin C. The possible
reason for this phenomenon is a synergetic effect of the fiber
treatment during polysulfone placement, which made immobilized
cells more susceptible to environmental toxicants. The advantage
of this procedure was not only in preventing the GMO leakage
outside the matrix but also in increasing sensor sensitivity by
inducing cell response to lower environmental toxicants (Eltzov
et al., unpublished).
