title: Growth of gold nanoparticles in human cells.
abstract: Gold nanoparticles of 20-100 nm diameter were synthesized within HEK-293 (human embryonic kidney), HeLa (human cervical cancer), SiHa (human cervical cancer), and SKNSH (human neuroblastoma) cells. Incubation of 1 mM tetrachloroaurate solution, prepared in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), pH 7.4, with human cells grown to approximately 80% confluency yielded systematic growth of nanoparticles over a period of 96 h. The cells, stained due to nanoparticle growth, were adherent to the bottom of the wells of the tissue culture plates, with their morphology preserved, indicating that the cell membrane was intact. Transmission electron microscopy of ultrathin sections showed the presence of nanoparticles within the cytoplasm and in the nucleus, the latter being much smaller in dimension. Scanning near field microscopic images confirmed the growth of large particles within the cytoplasm. Normal cells gave UV-visible signatures of higher intensity than the cancer cells. Differences in the cellular metabolism of cancer and noncancer cells were manifested, presumably in their ability to carry out the reduction process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai.
authors.forename: Anshup
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anshup
authors.forename: J Sai
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Venkataraman
authors.forename: Chandramouli
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Subramaniam
authors.forename: R Rajeev
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Suma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Priya
authors.forename: T R Santhosh
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: R V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Omkumar
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: John
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pradeep
mesh_terms: D006046:Gold / Q000378:metabolism; D057809:HEK293 Cells; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D053758:Nanoparticles
chemical_list: D006046:Gold