Probing the Cytotoxicity Of Semiconductor Quantum Dots.

By A. M. Derfus, W. Chan, Sangeeta N. Bhatia. Nano letters (Print), 2004

3,237 citations recorded by the source corpus.

With their bright, photostable fluorescence, semiconductor quantum dots show promise as alternatives to organic dyes for biological labeling. Questions about their potential cytotoxicity, however, remain unanswered. While cytotoxicity of bulk cadmium selenide (CdSe) is well documented, a number of groups have suggested that CdSe QDs are cytocompatible, at least with some immortalized cell lines. Using primary hepatocytes as a liver model, we found that CdSe-core QDs were indeed acutely toxic under certain conditions. Specifically, we found that the cytotoxicity of QDs was modulated by processing parameters during synthesis, exposure to ultraviolet light, and surface coatings. Our data further suggests that cytotoxicity correlates with the liberation of free Cd2+ ions due to deterioration of the CdSe lattice. When appropriately coated, CdSe-core QDs can be rendered non-toxic and used to track cell migration and reorganization in vitro. Our results inform design criteria for the use of QDs in vitro and especially in vivo where deterioration over time may occur.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8a70105d85d975994ed48c565b440c8a8c7ff12d

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Citations in the corpus

Quantum Dots for Live Cell and In Vivo Imaging (2009, background): “By examining the effects of the free core materials in solution, cadmium was determined as the primary cause of cytotoxicity, but its levels could be reduced or eliminated by adding additional surface coatings [27,29].”
Direct and indirect CeO2 nanoparticles toxicity for Escherichia coli and Synechocystis (2009, background): “Therefore, several papers have recently studied the impact of nanoparticles on animals or mammalian cells (Derfus et al. 2004; Kirchner et al. 2005; Shukla et al. 2005; Franklin et al. 2007; Yacobi et al. 2007)”
Toxicology of nanoparticles: A historical perspective (2007, background): “…five years demonstrating significant toxicity of different nanomaterials, be they carbon nanotubes, metal nanoparticles, fullerenes, quantum dots, etc. (Lam et al. 2004; Warheit et al. 2004; Sayes et al. 2004; Hoshino et al. 2004; Derfus et al. 2004; Kirchner et al. 2005; Shvedova et al. 2005).”
Biocompatibility of engineered nanoparticles for drug delivery. (2013, background): “vivo [179] and in rhesus monkey [180] regardless of the possible release of toxic chemicals such as cadmium, Cd [181,182] and production of reactive oxygen species (5).”