Temperature sensing using fluorescent nanothermometers.
Acquiring the temperature of a single living cell is not a trivial task. In this paper, we devise a novel nanothermometer, capable of accurately determining the temperature of solutions as well as biological systems such as HeLa cancer cells. The nanothermometer is based on the temperature-sensitive fluorescence of NaYF(4):Er(3+),Yb(3+) nanoparticles, where the intensity ratio of the green fluorescence bands of the Er(3+) dopant ions ((2)H(11/2) --> (4)I(15/2) and (4)S(3/2) --> (4)I(15/2)) changes with temperature. The nanothermometers were first used to obtain thermal profiles created when heating a colloidal solution of NaYF(4):Er(3+),Yb(3+) nanoparticles in water using a pump-probe experiment. Following incubation of the nanoparticles with HeLa cervical cancer cells and their subsequent uptake, the fluorescent nanothermometers measured the internal temperature of the living cell from 25 degrees C to its thermally induced death at 45 degrees C.
Vetrone
Fiorenzo
F
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC, H4B 1R6 Canada.
Naccache
Rafik
R
Zamarrón
Alicia
A
Juarranz de la Fuente
Angeles
A
Sanz-Rodríguez
Francisco
F
Martinez Maestro
Laura
L
Martín Rodriguez
Emma
E
Jaque
Daniel
D
García Solé
José
J
Capobianco
John A
JA
D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D013821:Thermometers