title: Subcellular distribution and cellular self-repair ability of fluorescent quantum dots emitting in the visible to near-infrared region.
abstract: Semiconductor II-VI quantum dots (QDs), as high-performance fluorescent biological probes, have garnered significant attention due to their superior optical properties. To enable QDs for wide-ranging bioapplications, concerns about their in vitro behavior need to be fully addressed. Herein, for the first time, cellular behaviors of aqueous synthesized-QDs (aqQDs), whose maximum emission wavelength (λemission) covers the visible to near-infrared spectral window, are systematically investigated. Our results demonstrate that three different sized aqQDs feature distinct cellular distributions, i.e. aqQD530 (aqQDs whose λemissionis 530 nm) and aqQD620 (aqQDs whose λemissionis 620 nm) mainly distribute in the cytoplasm and nucleus, while aqQD730 (aqQDs whose λemissionis 730 nm) mainly accumulates in the cytoplasm. Most significantly, the phenomenon that cellular self-repair ability is dependent on diameters of aqQDs is revealed for the first time. In particular, small-sized QDs (e.g. aqQD530 and aqQD620) severely deteriorate cellular self-repair ability, leading to an irreversible decrease in cell viability. In striking contrast, large-sized QDs (e.g. aqQD730) have little effect on cellular self-repair ability, and the cell viability is restored after removal of aqQD730 from the culture medium. Our results provide invaluable information for QD-relevant biosafety analysis, as well as suggest available guidance for the design of biocompatible QDs for wide utilization in biological and biomedical studies.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yiling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He