The cytotoxicity of cadmium based, aqueous phase – Synthesized, quantum dots and its modulation by surface coating
✍ Scribed by Yuanyuan Su; Yao He; Haoting Lu; Liman Sai; Qingnuan Li; Wenxin Li; Lianhui Wang; Pingping Shen; Qing Huang; Chunhai Fan
- Book ID
- 104003721
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 624 KB
- Volume
- 30
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0142-9612
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✦ Synopsis
In this report, we evaluated the cytotoxicity of a series of quantum dots (QDs) directly synthesized in aqueous phase, i.e., thiols-stabilized CdTe, CdTe/CdS core-shell structured and CdTe/CdS/ZnS core-shellshell structured QDs, with a variety of cell lines including K562 and HEK293T. We have demonstrated that the CdTe QDs are highly toxic for cells due to the release of cadmium ions. Epitaxial growth of a CdS layer reduces the cytotoxicity of QDs to a small extent. However, the presence of a ZnS outlayer greatly improves the biocompatibility of QDs, with no observed cytotoxicity even at very high concentration and long-time exposure in cells. Our systematic investigation clearly shows that the cytotoxicity of QDs can be modulated through elaborate surface coatings and that the CdTe/CdS/ZnS core-shell-shell structured QDs directly synthesized in aqueous phase are highly promising biological fluorescent probes for cellular imaging.