Abstract
Multicellular tumor spheroids are experimental models between animals and 2D cells. It can not only combine with animal experiments to obtain more detailed experimental data to reduce the number of experimental animals, but also can simulate better the tumor microenvironment of solid tumors. Although a variety of multicellular tumor spheroids had been developed, the multicellular tumor spheroids labelling with fluorescence quantum dots were rarely studied. Herein, folic acid-modified CdSe/ZnS quantum dots with size 5.98 ± 0.31 nm were prepared and characterized the properties of fluorescence, stability, and anti-photobleaching. A low-speed centrifugation was used to induce aggregation of the suspended colon cancer cells HCT116 labelled with quantum dots, and the aggregated cell was cultured to form 3D cell spheroids. The changes in fluorescence and biological activity of 3D cell spheroids and the position of quantum dots in cells were further studied. The results showed that cells labelled with quantum dots can form intact cell spheroids and maintain high fluorescence intensity and bioactivity.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Analytical and Testing Center (HUST), the Research Core Facilities for Life Science (HUST), and the Center for Nanoscale Characterization & Devices (CNCD).
Funding
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0700501) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81871414, 81971658, 91959109).
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Yang, J., Zhao, D., Li, C. et al. Investigation of the bioactivity and fluorescence imaging of multicellular tumor spheroid targeted labelling with CdSe/ZnS quantum dots. J Nanopart Res 24, 51 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-022-05429-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-022-05429-z