title: Cell perforation mediated by plasmonic bubbles generated by a single near infrared femtosecond laser pulse.
abstract: We report on transient membrane perforation of living cancer cells using plasmonic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) enhanced single near infrared (NIR) femtosecond (fs) laser pulse. Under optimized laser energy fluence, single pulse treatment (τ = 45 fs, λ = 800 nm) resulted in 77% cell perforation efficiency and 90% cell viability. Using dark field and ultrafast imaging, we demonstrated that the generation of submicron bubbles around the AuNPs is the necessary condition for the cell membrane perforation. AuNP clustering increased drastically the bubble generation efficiency, thus enabling an effective laser treatment using low energy dose in the NIR optical therapeutical window.
authors.affiliation: Laser Processing and Plasmonics Laboratory, Engineering Physics Department, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3A7, Canada.|SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh, St. Andrews, KY16 9SS, UK.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boutopoulos
authors.affiliation: Laser Processing and Plasmonics Laboratory, Engineering Physics Department, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3A7, Canada.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bergeron
authors.affiliation: Laser Processing and Plasmonics Laboratory, Engineering Physics Department, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3A7, Canada. michel.meunier@polymtl.ca.
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meunier
mesh_terms: D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D002470:Cell Survival; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007259:Infrared Rays; D007834:Lasers; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D006046:Gold
keywords: cell manipulation; gold nanoparticle; nanobubble; nanosurgery; ultrafast laser