Cellular uptake, evolution, and excretion of silica nanoparticles in human cells.

A systematic study on the interaction of silica nanoparticles (NPs) with human cells has been carried out in the present work. Endocytosis and exocytosis are identified as major pathways for NPs entering, and exiting the cells, respectively. Most of the NPs are found to be enclosed in membrane bounded organelles, which are fairly stable (against rupture) as very few NPs are released into the cytoplasm. The nanoparticle-cell interaction is a dynamic process, and the amount of NPs inside the cells is affected by both the amount and morphology (degree of aggregation) of NPs in the medium. These interaction characteristics determine the low cytotoxicity of SiO(2) NPs at low feeding concentration.