Vapor phase mediated cellular uptake of sub 5 nm nanoparticles.

ABSTRACT: Nanoparticles became an important and wide-used tool for cell imaging because of their unique optical properties. Although the potential of nanoparticles (NPs) in biology is promising, a number of questions concerning the safety of nanomaterials and the risk/benefit ratio of their usage are open. Here, we have shown that nanoparticles produced from silicon carbide (NPs) dispersed in colloidal suspensions are able to penetrate into surrounding air environment during the natural evaporation of the colloids and label biological cells via vapor phase. Natural gradual size-tuning of NPs in dependence to the distance from the NP liquid source allows progressive shift of the fluorescence color of labeled cells in the blue region according to the increase of the distance from the NP suspension. Th

SUBMITTER: Serdiuk T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3368743 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature