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Imaging gap junctions with silica-coated upconversion nanoparticles

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Abstract

Upconversion nanoparticles (UCN) that are excited in the near infrared (NIR) region were synthesized and modified to enable their application to biological systems for imaging. The UCN obtained are oleic acid capped and hence hydrophobic in nature. Since the particles were to be used for imaging cells, a surface modification to make them hydrophilic and biocompatible was performed. Silica coating was chosen for the modification due to the possibility to further functionalize the surface and conjugate biomolecules. Cardiac cells which are capable of forming gap junctions were selected to be labeled. Gap junction specific antibodies were conjugated to the silica-coated UCN. The fluorescence emission spectrum of the particles was obtained with a continuous wave 980 nm laser and size of the particles before and after coating was determined to be 30 and 50 nm, respectively, by TEM. A covalent coupling method was used to bind the gap junction specific antibody to the nanoparticles. The fluorescence imaging experiments were carried out on cardiomyoblast cells and co-culture of bone marrow stem cells/cardiomyoblast cells after incubation with the antibody-modified UCN. Images of the particles after incubation with cardiac cells obtained over days demonstrated the potentials of the UCN for fluorescence imaging.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the funding support from an AcRF Tier 1 grant (grant no. R-397-000-040-112) from Singapore Ministry of Education. The authors would also like to thank the French ministry and Singapore ministry for the collaboration opportunity under Merlion program (2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore, 7 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore, 117574, Singapore

    Sounderya Nagarajan, Zhengquan Li & Yong Zhang

  2. Université de Rennes1, UMR 6226 CNRS, Campus de Beaulieu, Sciences Chimique de Rennes, Rennes, Cedex, 35000, France

    Sounderya Nagarajan, Valerie Marchi-Artzner & Fabien Grasset

  3. Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Initiative, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576, Singapore

    Yong Zhang

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  1. Sounderya Nagarajan
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  2. Zhengquan Li
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  5. Yong Zhang
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Correspondence to Yong Zhang.

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Nagarajan, S., Li, Z., Marchi-Artzner, V. et al. Imaging gap junctions with silica-coated upconversion nanoparticles. Med Biol Eng Comput 48, 1033–1041 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-010-0618-x

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