Abstract
Utility of glycol-chitosan-coated gold nanoparticles (GC-AuNPs) as a photoacoustic contrast agent for cancer cell imaging was demonstrated. Through the synergistic effect of glycol chitosan and gold nanoparticles, GC-AuNPs showed cellular uptake in breast cancer cells and resulted in strong photoacoustic signals in tissue-mimicking cell phantoms. The performance of GC-AuNPs as contrast agents was established with photoacoustic imaging and confirmed with dark-field microscopy. The cell phantoms displayed strong photoacoustic signals if cells were incubated more than 3 h with GC-AuNPs, compared with PEG-AuNPs that showed no photoacoustic signal increase. The enhanced photoacoustic signals originated from the plasmon coupling effect of GC-AuNPs after the cellular uptake in cancer cells. Importantly, photoacoustic imaging of cancer cells was achieved with GC-AuNPs - contrast agents that did not require antibodies or complex surface modification. The endocytosis of GC-AuNPs was also confirmed with dark-field microscopy. The results show that GC-AuNPs have potential as a photoacoustic contrast agent for cellular imaging including tumor tissue imaging.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 121903 |
Journal | Journal of biomedical optics |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2019 Dec 1 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- cancer imaging
- contrast agent
- glycol chitosan
- gold nanoparticles
- photoacoustic imaging
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Biomaterials
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
- Biomedical Engineering