Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Japan.
ACS Nano. 2011 Jan 25;5(1):493-9. doi: 10.1021/nn102344t. Epub 2010 Dec 8.
Major barriers to delivery of biomolecules are crossing the cellular membranes and achieving a high cytoplasmic concentration by circumventing entrapment into endosomes and other lytic organelles. Motivated by such aim, we have investigated the capability of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to penetrate the cell membrane of plant protoplasts (plant cells made devoid of their cell walls via enzymatic treatment) and studied their internalization mechanism via confocal imaging and TEM techniques. Our results indentified an endosome-escaping uptake mode of MWCNTs by plant protoplasts. Moreover, short MWCNTs (<100 nm) were observed to target specific cellular substructures including the nucleus, plastids, and vacuoles. These findings are expected to have a significant impact on plant cell biology and transformation technologies.
生物分子传递的主要障碍是穿过细胞膜，并通过绕过内体和其他溶酶体而实现细胞质内的高浓度。受此目的的启发，我们研究了多壁碳纳米管 (MWCNTs) 穿透植物原生质体 (通过酶处理使细胞壁缺失的植物细胞) 细胞膜的能力，并通过共聚焦成像和 TEM 技术研究了它们的内化机制。我们的结果确定了 MWCNTs 通过植物原生质体的内体逃逸摄取模式。此外，还观察到短 MWCNTs（<100nm）靶向特定的细胞亚结构，包括细胞核、质体和液泡。这些发现有望对植物细胞生物学和转化技术产生重大影响。
