title: In vitro cytotoxicity of fluorescent silica nanoparticles hybridized with aggregation-induced emission luminogens  for living cell imaging.
abstract: Fluorescent silica nanoparticles (FSNPs) can provide high-intensity and photostable fluorescent signals as a probe for biomedical analysis. In this study, FSNPs hybridized with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens (namely FSNP-SD) were successfully fabricated by a surfactant-free sol-gel method. The FSNP-SD were spherical, monodisperse and uniform in size, with an average diameter of approximately 100 nm, and emitted strong fluorescence at the peak of 490 nm. The FSNP-SD selectively stained the cytoplasmic regions and were distributed in the cytoplasm. Moreover, they can stay inside cells, enabling the tacking of cells over a long period of time. The intracellular vesicles and multinucleated cells were increase gradually with the rise of FSNP-SD concentration. Both cell viability and survival only lost less than 20% when the cells were exposed to the high concentration of 100 μg/mL FSNP-SD. Additionally, the cell apoptosis and intracellular ROS assay indicated that FSNP-SD had no significant toxic effects at the maximum working concentration of 80 μg/mL. This study demonstrated that the FSNP-SD are promising biocompatible fluorescent probes for living cell imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China. qc_zheng@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Weijie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.forename: Qinggang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Zifang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Qichang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D048430:Cell Shape / Q000187:drug effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D011437:Propylamines; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012821:Silanes / Q000737:chemistry; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D011437:Propylamines; D012821:Silanes; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; C477625:amino-propyl-triethoxysilane