Speaker
Ms
Ye Tao
(National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Description
Nanoparticles (NPs) are being increasingly used in a wide range of biological applications, for example, as imaging probes or therapeutic agents1. Understanding the mechanism of cellular uptake of NPs is therefore important. It is known that the efficiency of internalization of NPs by individual cells depends on many factors, including the shape, size, and surface modification of the particles2,3 as well as the timing of the cell within its cell cycle4. Previous work using PIXE has indicated that there can be as much as ten times variation in NP uptake in individual cells in the same cell population5.
We have demonstrated that Scanning Transmission Ion Microscopy (STIM) can image NPs in individual cells with a spatial resolution of around 20nm 6, and this technique therefore offers a way of characterizing and quantifying the number of nanoparticles each cell has internalized. Here we present preliminary results on the variability of uptake of NPs in individual human-derived cells that have been grown under the same controlled conditions.
1. Rosi, N. L. & Mirkin, C. a. Nanostructures in biodiagnostics. Chem. Rev. 105, 1547–62 (2005).
2. Ma, N. et al. Influence of Nanoparticle Shape, Size, and Surface Functionalization on Cellular Uptake. J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 13, 6485–6498 (2013).
3. Cho, E. C., Au, L., Zhang, Q. & Xia, Y. The effects of size, shape, and surface functional group of gold nanostructures on their adsorption and internalization by cells. Small 6, 517–22 (2010).
4. Kim, J. A., Åberg, C., Salvati, A. & Dawson, K. a. Role of cell cycle on the cellular uptake and dilution of nanoparticles in a cell population. Nat. Nanotechnol. 7, 62–8 (2012).
5. Jeynes, J. C. G., Jeynes, C., Merchant, M. J. & Kirkby, K. J. Measuring and modelling cell-to-cell variation in uptake of gold nanoparticles. Analyst 138, 7070–4 (2013).
6. Watt, F. et al. Whole cell structural imaging at 20 nanometre resolutions using MeV ions. Nucl. Instruments Methods Phys. Res. Sect. B Beam Interact. with Mater. Atoms 306, 6–11 (2013).
Primary author
Ms
Ye Tao
(National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Co-authors
Prof.
Andrew Bettiol
(Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Dr
Ce-Belle Chen
(National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Prof.
FRANK Watt
(National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Dr
Sudheer Kumar Vanga
(National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Mr
Zhaohong Mi
(National University of Singapore, Singapore)
