Luminescent Ru(bpy)3 2+-doped silica nanoparticles for imaging of intracellular temperature

Microchimica Acta volume 181, pages743–749(2014)Cite this article

Abstract

Silica nanoparticles doped with the luminescent temperature probe Ru(bpy)3 2+ were prepared by a modified Stöber method and are shown to enable optical sensing of intracellular temperatures. Based on the regrowth of silica nanoseeds, the ruthenium probe was easily incorporated and then covered with a shell of pure silica. The resulting nanothermometers were immune to the quenching by oxygen owing to the outer silica layer. The nanoparticles were further coated with poly-L-lysine in order to reduce cytotoxicity and to warrant cellular uptake. The luminescence of these nanosensors is rather sensitive to temperature in the physiological range (25–45 °C), with a decrease of −1.26 % in intensity per °C increase in temperature. The nanosensors were internalized into living cells of a hepatocellular carcinoma cell line along with gold nanorods. These display longitudinal surface plasmon resonance absorption at ~808 nm that causes a local rise in temperature. The microscopically captured luminescence intensity of the nanosensors after 808 nm irradiation of the gold nanorods decayed with increasing temperature, thereby indicating successful imaging of temperature.

Luminescent Ru(bpy)3 2+-doped silica nanoparticles are prepared to image the cellular temperature of living cells, which is elevated by the photothermal conversion of 808-nm light with gold nanorods.

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Acknowledgment

This work was financially supported by NSFC (Grant nos. 61078069 and 11274038), NCET (12–0771), NSF for Distinguished Young Scholars (61125505), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2010JBZ006).

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Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Fluorescence and Optical Information, Ministry of Education, Institute of Optoelectronic Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Lin Yang, Hong-Shang Peng, He Ding, Fang-Tian You & Feng Teng

  2. College of Life Sciences & Bioengineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Ling-Ling Hou

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  1. Lin Yang
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  2. Hong-Shang Peng
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  3. He Ding
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  4. Fang-Tian You
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  6. Feng Teng
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Correspondence to Hong-Shang Peng.

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Yang, L., Peng, HS., Ding, H. et al. Luminescent Ru(bpy)3 2+-doped silica nanoparticles for imaging of intracellular temperature. Microchim Acta 181, 743–749 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-013-1092-6

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Keywords

  • Ru(bpy)3 2+
  • Luminescence imaging
  • Cellular temperature
  • Silica nanoparticles