Quantitative and real-time effects of carbon quantum dots on single living HeLa cell membrane permeability

Weiqian Kong; Juan Liu; Ruihua Liu; Hao Li; Yang Liu; Hui Huang; Kunyang Li; Jian Liu; Shuit-Tong Lee; Zhenhui Kang

doi:10.1039/C3NR06590A

Quantitative and real-time effects of carbon quantum dots on single living HeLa cell membrane permeability†

Weiqian Kong,^a Juan Liu,^a Ruihua Liu,^a Hao Li,^a Yang Liu,*^a Hui Huang,^a Kunyang Li,^a Jian Liu,^a Shuit-Tong Lee^a and Zhenhui Kang*^a

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* Corresponding authors

^a Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University, Jiangsu 215123, China
E-mail: yangl@suda.edu.cn, zhkang@suda.edu.cn

Abstract

The interaction between carbon quantum dots (CQDs) and a single living cell was explored in real time. Here, we provide the quantitative data on the permeability of the HeLa cell membrane in the presence of CQDs with different surface functional groups (CQDs terminated with –OH/–COOH (CQD–OH), –PEG (CQD–PEG), and –NH₂ (CQD–NH₂)). Although these CQDs have very low toxicity towards HeLa cells, they still increase the cell membrane permeability by 8%, 13%, and 19% for CQD–PEG, CQD–OH, and CQD–NH₂, respectively, and this kind of permeability was irreversible. These observations are valuable for promoting the bio-applications of carbon nanostructures in living systems.

Nanoscale

Quantitative and real-time effects of carbon quantum dots on single living HeLa cell membrane permeability†

Abstract

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Quantitative and real-time effects of carbon quantum dots on single living HeLa cell membrane permeability

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