Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Göttingen, Tammannstrasse 6, Göttingen, Germany.
Nanotoxicology. 2011 Jun;5(2):254-68. doi: 10.3109/17435390.2010.528847. Epub 2010 Nov 4.
Nanoparticle exposure is monitored by a combination of two label-free and non-invasive biosensor devices which detect cellular shape and viscoelasticity (quartz crystal microbalance), cell motility and the dynamics of epithelial cell-cell contacts (electric cell-substrate impedance sensing). With these tools we have studied the impact of nanoparticle shape on cellular physiology. Gold (Au) nanoparticles coated with CTAB were synthesized and studied in two distinct shapes: Spheres with a diameter of (43 ± 4) nm and rods with a size of (38 ± 7) nm × (17 ± 3) nm. Dose-response experiments were accompanied by conventional cytotoxicity tests as well as fluorescence and dark-field microscopy to visualize the intracellular particle distribution. We found that spherical gold nanoparticles with identical surface functionalization are generally more toxic and more efficiently ingested than rod-shaped particles. We largely attribute the higher toxicity of CTAB-coated spheres as compared to rod-shaped particles to a higher release of toxic CTAB upon intracellular aggregation.
纳米颗粒暴露情况通过两种无标记和非侵入式生物传感器设备的组合进行监测，这些设备可检测细胞形状和粘弹性（石英晶体微天平）、细胞迁移以及上皮细胞-细胞接触的动力学（电动细胞-基质阻抗传感）。使用这些工具，我们研究了纳米颗粒形状对细胞生理学的影响。合成了涂有 CTAB 的金（Au）纳米颗粒，并研究了两种不同的形状：直径为（43±4）nm 的球体和尺寸为（38±7）nm×（17±3）nm 的棒状颗粒。剂量反应实验伴随着传统的细胞毒性测试以及荧光和暗场显微镜，以观察细胞内颗粒分布。我们发现，具有相同表面功能化的球形金纳米颗粒通常比棒状颗粒毒性更大且更易被摄取。与棒状颗粒相比，CTAB 涂覆的球形颗粒具有更高的毒性，我们将其主要归因于细胞内聚集时释放出更多的有毒 CTAB。
