Getting Across the Plasma Membrane and Beyond: Intracellular Uses of Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystals

[摘要] Semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) are increasingly being used as photoluminescen markers in biological imaging. Their brightness, large Stokes shift, and high photostability compared to organic fluorophores permit the exploration of biological phenomena at the single-molecule scalewith superior temporal resolution and spatialprecision. NCs have predominantly been used as extracellularmarkers for tagging and tracking membrane proteins. Successful internalization and intracellular labellingwith NCs have been demonstrated for both fixed immunolabelled and live cells. However, the precise localization and subcellular compartment labelled are less clear. Generally, live cell studies are limited bythe requirement of fairly invasive protocols for loading NCs and the relatively large size of NCs compared tothe cellular machinery, along with the subsequent sequestration of NCs in endosomal/lysosomalcompartments. For long-period observation the potential cytotoxicity of cytoplasmically loaded NCs must be evaluated. This review focuses on the challenges of intracellular uses of NCs.

[学科分类] 基础医学