Effects of long-term exposure of gelatinated and non-gelatinated cadmium telluride quantum dots on differentiated pc12 cells
Prasad, Babu R Mullins, Gillian Nikolskaya, Natalia Connolly, David Smith, Terry J Gérard, Valérie A Byrne, Stephen J Davies, Gemma-Louise Gun'ko, Yurii K Rochev, Yury
Prasad, Babu R
Mullins, Gillian
Nikolskaya, Natalia
Connolly, David
Smith, Terry J
Gérard, Valérie A
Byrne, Stephen J
Davies, Gemma-Louise
Gun'ko, Yurii K
Rochev, Yury
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Publication Date
2012-01-01
Type
Article
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Citation
Prasad, Babu R; Mullins, Gillian; Nikolskaya, Natalia; Connolly, David; Smith, Terry J; Gérard, Valérie A; Byrne, Stephen J; Davies, Gemma-Louise; Gun'ko, Yurii K; Rochev, Yury (2012). Effects of long-term exposure of gelatinated and non-gelatinated cadmium telluride quantum dots on differentiated pc12 cells. Journal of Nanobiotechnology 10 ,
Abstract
Background: The inherent toxicity of unmodified Quantum Dots (QDs) is a major hindrance to their use in biological applications. To make them more potent as neuroprosthetic and neurotherapeutic agents, thioglycolic acid (TGA) capped CdTe QDs, were coated with a gelatine layer and investigated in this study with differentiated pheochromocytoma 12 (PC12) cells. The QD - cell interactions were investigated after incubation periods of up to 17 days by MTT and APOTOX-Glo Triplex assays along with using confocal microscopy. Results: Long term exposure (up to 17 days) to gelatinated TGA-capped CdTe QDs of PC12 cells in the course of differentiation and after neurites were grown resulted in dramatically reduced cytotoxicity compared to non-gelatinated TGA-capped CdTe QDs. Conclusion: The toxicity mechanism of QDs was identified as caspase-mediated apoptosis as a result of cadmium leaking from the core of QDs. It was therefore concluded that the gelatine capping on the surface of QDs acts as a barrier towards the leaking of toxic ions from the core QDs in the long term (up to 17 days).
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Publisher
Springer Nature
Publisher DOI
10.1186/1477-3155-10-4
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland