Visualising nanoscale restructuring of a cellular membrane triggered by polyelectrolyte microcapsules.

ABSTRACT: Polymer-based multilayer microencapsulation technology represents one of the promising strategies for intracellular drug delivery, however, membrane processes involved in vehicle internalisation are not fully understood. Here we employed a scanning probe microscopy technique called Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM) to study these complex processes at nanoscale resolution in real time. We were able to image topography simultaneously with local elastic modulus throughout the whole course of microcapsule internalisation in A549 cell culture without disrupting the internalisation process. The imaging revealed that capsules triggered the formation of membrane protrusions in their vicinity, which is an important but not a sufficient step towards full capsule internalisation. A crucial a

SUBMITTER: Chen Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6137606 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature