Cytotoxicity of the Functionalized Gold and Silver Nanorods
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0951-E12-25
Cytotoxicity of the Functionalized Gold and Silver Nanorods Chiung-Wen Kuo, Jun-Jung Lai Lai, and Peilin Chen Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, 128, Sect 2, Academia Rd. Nankang, Taipei, 115, Taiwan
ABSTRACT
The cytotoxicity of various surface functionalized gold and silver nanords was measured by MTT assays for two cell lines, fibroblast and HeLa. It was found that the functionalized nanorods with 200 nm diameter and length up to a few µm can be readily internalized by both types of cells regardless of the surface functionalization. However, the cytotoxicity of the nanorods was found to depend on the polarity of the surface charge. The positively charged amino end group on the nanorod surface was found to be the least toxic whereas the negatively charged carboxylic acid end group on the nanorod surface caused lots of cell death. In general, the functionalized nanorods were found to be more toxic than the serum coated nanorods.
INTRODUCTION With the rapid advancement in nanotechnology, various techniques have been developed to synthesize nanoparticles with novel optical, magnetic, electrical, mechanical and catalytic properties [1]. By controlling the size, shape and composition of the nanoparticles, their properties can be tailored to fit a specific requirement, which allows great flexibility in designing new experiments or applications. Many research fields have benefited from the fruitful development of nanotechnology, especially the field of biomedical studies. Recently, there has been increasing research attentions focused on the development of nanomaterials for solving complicated biological problems. For example, nanoparticles, such as quantum dots or metallic nanoparticles, have been shown to exhibit superior performance to the conventional techniques in biosensing [2-5] and biolabeling [6-9]. However, the applications of nanoparticles in the study of living cells are less explored due to the issues of biocompatibility and cytotoxicity [10-17]. Noble metals, such as gold, have been used in the biological studies for a long time because of their stability and low toxicity. Recently, with the help of nanotechnology, there are renewed research efforts in developing metallic nanoparticle-based techniques for labeling [18-20], drug delivery [21-24] and gene regulation [25]. A common approach used in these applications is to chemically modify the surface of the nanoparticles such that the nanoparticles can recognize a specific molecule or receptor on the cell surfaces or the nanoparticles can form complexes with drugs or genetic materials to enter the cells. However, in a more complicated experiment, it may require the nanoparticles to possess several functionalities so that several tasks can be performed by a single particle.
We are interested in developing sensing and tracking techniques for the living cells using micrometer long nanorods. In the past, most of the nanoparticles used for the study of cellular behavior were smaller than 100 nm, which allowed for easy uptake b
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