The surface properties of nanoparticles determine the agglomeration state and the size of the particles under physiological conditions

• Christoph Bantz,
• Olga Koshkina,
• Thomas Lang,
• Hans-Joachim Galla,
• C. James Kirkpatrick,
• Roland H. Stauber and
• Michael Maskos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1774–1786, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.188

• responsible for the colloidal stability of the dispersion. Generally, the absolute value of the zeta potential decreases under conditions of high salinity, which are predominant in cell culture medium. For example, for NexSil20, a zeta potential value of −20 mV is found. However, under conditions of

• conducting a multicomponent analysis in the cases where proteins were present [28]. DLS analysis of the pure protein mixture in RPMI cell culture medium (RPMI + 5% FCS) yields an average hydrodynamic radius of 9.2 nm (μ2: 0.16). Furthermore, the results of zeta potential (ZP) measurements in low salt

Influence of surface-modified maghemite nanoparticles on in vitro survival of human stem cells

• Michal Babič,
• Daniel Horák,
• Lyubov L. Lukash,
• Tetiana A. Ruban,
• Yurii N. Kolomiets,
• Svitlana P. Shpylova and
• Oksana A. Grypych

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1732–1737, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.183

• were measured by using the Atlas software (Tescan Digital Microscopy Imaging, Brno, Czech Republic). Cell culture and MTT test The human established stem cell line 4BL originated from peripheral blood of a healthy donor was obtained from the Department of Human Genetics of the Institute of Molecular

In vitro and in vivo interactions of selected nanoparticles with rodent serum proteins and their consequences in biokinetics

• Wolfgang G. Kreyling,
• Stefanie Fertsch-Gapp,
• Martin Schäffler,
• Blair D. Johnston,
• Nadine Haberl,
• Christian Pfeiffer,
• Jörg Diendorf,
• Carsten Schleh,
• Stephanie Hirn,
• Manuela Semmler-Behnke,
• Matthias Epple and
• Wolfgang J. Parak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1699–1711, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.180

• twenty-four hours the viability of the PCLS was tested by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) analysis for cell membrane damage and a WST-1 assay for mitochondrial activity in the cell culture supernatant as well as the release of the pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin

Different endocytotic uptake mechanisms for nanoparticles in epithelial cells and macrophages

• Dagmar A. Kuhn,
• Dimitri Vanhecke,
• Benjamin Michen,
• Fabian Blank,
• Peter Gehr,
• Alke Petri-Fink and
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1625–1636, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.174

• order to avoid binding of serum proteins to the particle surfaces which might induce agglomeration, however, the binding of small molecules or salts in the cell culture medium cannot be excluded. The focus of the present study was on two cell types that have important clearing and barrier functions

• by dynamic light scattering, zeta potential and transmission electron microscopy in water and unsupplemented cell culture medium. Transmission electron microscopy images of (B) 1 µm particles, (C) NPs, and (D) a mixture of 1 µm particles and NPs. LSM images demonstrate the presence of the different

Precise quantification of silica and ceria nanoparticle uptake revealed by 3D fluorescence microscopy

• Adriano A. Torrano and
• Christoph Bräuchle

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1616–1624, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.173

• these investigations have in common, though, is the need for a fast and accurate method to quantify the uptake of nanoparticle by cells. In vitro cell culture experiments are well-known models to study the uptake of nanoparticles into human cells. Basically, a monolayer of cells is grown on the bottom

• light scattering) were measured in ultrapure water and in cell medium (see section ‘Cell culture’ for details) with a Zetasizer Nano (Malvern Instruments, UK). In order to break down agglomerates, the resulting solution was vortexed for 10 s, treated in an ultrasonic bath for 10 min and vortexed again

• for 10 s. Cell culture HeLa and HUVEC cells were grown as described previously [4]. HMEC-1 cells were grown in MCDB-131 medium (Life Technologies, Germany) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (Life Technologies), 1% Glutamax (Life Technologies), 10 ng·mL−1 human epidermal growth factor (Life

Silica nanoparticles are less toxic to human lung cells when deposited at the air–liquid interface compared to conventional submerged exposure

• Alicja Panas,
• Andreas Comouth,
• Harald Saathoff,
• Thomas Leisner,
• Marco Al-Rawi,
• Michael Simon,
• Gunnar Seemann,
• Olaf Dössel,
• Sonja Mülhopt,
• Hanns-Rudolf Paur,
• Susanne Fritsch-Decker,
• Carsten Weiss and
• Silvia Diabaté

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1590–1602, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.171

• nanoparticles (NPs) in the lung by in vitro studies are usually performed under submerged conditions where NPs are suspended in cell culture media. However, the behaviour of nanoparticles such as agglomeration and sedimentation in such complex suspensions is difficult to control and hence the deposited cellular

• dose often remains unknown. Moreover, the cellular responses to NPs under submerged culture conditions might differ from those observed at physiological settings at the air–liquid interface. Results: In order to avoid problems because of an altered behaviour of the nanoparticles in cell culture medium

• the physiological situation in the lung where cells are directly exposed to an aerosol. Especially our findings of a strong inhibitory effect of serum proteins on NP toxicity show how the standard cell culture model generates artefacts and might lead to wrong conclusions [5]. Additionally, particle

Growth and structural discrimination of cortical neurons on randomly oriented and vertically aligned dense carbon nanotube networks

• Christoph Nick,
• Sandeep Yadav,
• Ravi Joshi,
• Christiane Thielemann and
• Jörg J. Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1575–1579, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.169

• double-walled as characterized and described earlier by us [23]. Neural cell culturing was performed by using cryo-conserved embryonic cortical rat neurons (E18 and E19) (Lonza Ltd, Basel, Switzerland). The substrates with CNT islands were sterilized under UV-light [25]. Cell culture medium was prepared

• 500,000 cells/mm2 onto each substrate and incubated in a humidified atmosphere for 4 h. Finally, petri dishes were filled with approximately 3 mL culture medium. Half the medium was replaced twice a week and completely replaced every second week. In the cell culture protocol no coating (e.g., laminin or

• to be fixed and finally dried before being sputter coated with 5 nm PtPd for SEM investigation. For doing so, the cell culture medium was removed from the substrates and replaced by 2.5% glutaraldehyde. After 2.5 h glutaraldehyde was removed and all substrates were washed in DI-water three times for

Ionic liquid-assisted formation of cellulose/calcium phosphate hybrid materials

• Ahmed Salama,
• Mike Neumann,
• Christina Günter and
• Andreas Taubert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1553–1568, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.167

• instrument is 0.3%. Acknowledgements We thank Ms. C. Pilz-Allen (funded by the Biomaterials Department, MPI of Colloids and Interfaces) for generously supporting us with the cell culture experiments. We thank the University of Potsdam for financial support. A.S. acknowledges a Channel Fellowship awarded by

Current state of laser synthesis of metal and alloy nanoparticles as ligand-free reference materials for nano-toxicological assays

• Christoph Rehbock,
• Jurij Jakobi,
• Lisa Gamrad,
• Selina van der Meer,
• Daniela Tiedemann,
• Ulrike Taylor,
• Wilfried Kues,
• Detlef Rath and
• Stephan Barcikowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1523–1541, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.165

• occur on bare nanoparticle surfaces [111]. In order to examine the influence of protein stabilization on ligand-free nanoparticles, albumin may be an appropriate model substance, which is known to be abundant in the protein corona and is one of the most frequent proteins in serum-containing cell culture

In vitro interaction of colloidal nanoparticles with mammalian cells: What have we learned thus far?

• Moritz Nazarenus,
• Qian Zhang,
• Mahmoud G. Soliman,
• Pablo del Pino,
• Beatriz Pelaz,
• Susana Carregal-Romero,
• Joanna Rejman,
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser,
• Martin J. D. Clift,
• Reinhard Zellner,
• G. Ulrich Nienhaus,
• James B. Delehanty,
• Igor L. Medintz and
• Wolfgang J. Parak

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1477–1490, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.161

• internalization? As mentioned before, virtually all NPs are spontaneously internalized by adherent cells, mainly cell lines, that are usually grown on a certain support and covered with cell culture medium under static conditions. In this case, NPs in the medium can directly access cells, and issues like tissue

• consider for all correlations between the NP–cell interactions and the physicochemical properties of the NPs. Reports, in which no characterization of colloidal properties has been performed, therefore have to be regarded very critically. Unfortunately, many NPs are not colloidally stable in cell culture

• demonstrate that NPs are colloidally stable in water do not provide any proof that the same NPs also will be stable in cell culture media. Besides salt, proteins are another key compound of (serum-containing) cell media. As discussed later in more detail, proteins adsorb to the surface of NPs, forming the so

Protein-coated pH-responsive gold nanoparticles: Microwave-assisted synthesis and surface charge-dependent anticancer activity

• Dickson Joseph,
• Nisha Tyagi,
• Christian Geckeler and
• Kurt E.Geckeler

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1452–1462, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.158

• cytotoxicity studies. The reactions were also carried out in the absence of AgNO3, keeping all of the other conditions the same as above. Cell culture and cell viability test (MTT assay) In a similar manner to the methods described in [61], Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (NIH-3T3), human colorectal cancer cells

The cell-type specific uptake of polymer-coated or micelle-embedded QDs and SPIOs does not provoke an acute pro-inflammatory response in the liver

• Markus Heine,
• Alexander Bartelt,
• Oliver T. Bruns,
• Denise Bargheer,
• Artur Giemsa,
• Barbara Freund,
• Ludger Scheja,
• Christian Waurisch,
• Alexander Eychmüller,
• Rudolph Reimer,
• Horst Weller,
• Peter Nielsen and
• Joerg Heeren

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1432–1440, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.155

• employing various cell culture systems described toxic effects of QDs [3][4]. Iron-containing superparamagnetic iron oxide nanocrystals (SPIOs) used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have a relative good reputation given that iron is an essential trace element and it can be assumed that iron from

• degraded SPIOs is transferred to the body iron stores. Nevertheless, iron-induced acute toxic reactions, probably related to the generation of reactive oxygen species, have been described in vitro after uptake of large amount of various SPIOs [5]. However, cell culture studies like the ones described above

Influence of the PDMS substrate stiffness on the adhesion of Acanthamoeba castellanii

• Sören B. Gutekunst,
• Carsten Grabosch,
• Alexander Kovalev,
• Stanislav N. Gorb and
• Christine Selhuber-Unkel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1393–1398, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.152

• culture flasks in order to avoid an encystment of A. castellanii trophozoites. Adhesion experiments The PDMS substrates were washed with PYG 712 medium before use. A. castellanii were detached from the cell culture substrate by cautiously hitting the culture flask. The acanthamoebae were counted by a

• (SO4)2·6H2O (AppliChem, Darmstadt, Germany), 10.0 mL 0.25 M Na2HPO4·7H2O (Roth, Karlsruhe, Germany), 10.0 mL 0.25 M KH2PO4 (Roth, Karlsruhe, Germany), 50.0 mL 2 M glucose (Sigma–Aldrich Chemie GmbH, Steinheim, Germany)). In this axenic culture, the PYG 712 medium was regularly exchanged in the cell

The protein corona protects against size- and dose-dependent toxicity of amorphous silica nanoparticles

• Dominic Docter,
• Christoph Bantz,
• Dana Westmeier,
• Hajo J. Galla,
• Qiangbin Wang,
• James C. Kirkpatrick,
• Peter Nielsen,
• Michael Maskos and
• Roland H. Stauber

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1380–1392, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.151

• methods. First, the size, spherical shape and homogeneity of the ASP were visualized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (Figure 1). Next, we examined the stability of the ASP dispersions in water, salt-containing buffer (buffer A), and cell culture medium (DMEM) with or without the addition of 10

• cell culture medium. Hence, the tested concentrations of ions, carbohydrates and supplements, such as vitamins, did not significantly affect the ASP profiles. Albeit other (bio)molecules besides proteins are known or at least discussed to adsorb to NP [7][40], their impact on the physico-chemical

• (103.5 mM NaCl, 5.3 mM KCl, 5.6 mM Na2HPO4, 1.4 mM KH2PO4, 23.8 mM NaHCO3, pH 7.4), DMEM with or without 10% FCS, and the measurements were conducted at 25 °C by using 0.6 mg/mL ASP. Cell culture The colonic carcinoma cell line Caco-2 and the colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line HT-29 were obtained from

Mimicking exposures to acute and lifetime concentrations of inhaled silver nanoparticles by two different in vitro approaches

• Fabian Herzog,
• Kateryna Loza,
• Sandor Balog,
• Martin J. D. Clift,
• Matthias Epple,
• Peter Gehr,
• Alke Petri-Fink and
• Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1357–1370, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.149

• inside the cells or attached to the cell surface. Due to the cultivation of the cells on cell culture inserts, the pores of the insert membranes become visible. Compared to unexposed cells, large NP aggregates can be seen as dark spots in Ag NP-treated cell cultures. TEM was used to resolve the Ag NPs

• with 2.7 ± 1.3 fold (p = 0.056) relative to the negative control. LDH levels for cells exposed under submerged conditions were determined in the upper compartment of the transwell insert as well as in the lower compartment (Figure 4B). Due to differences in the amount of cell culture medium used in the

• (data not shown). Cytokine/chemokine secretion As described in [44], the release of the pro-inflammatory markers TNF-α and IL-8 was measured 4 and 24 h after exposure by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to characterize the pro-inflammatory response of the cell culture lung model (Figure 5

PEGylated versus non-PEGylated magnetic nanoparticles as camptothecin delivery system

• Paula M. Castillo,
• Mario de la Mata,
• Maria F. Casula,
• José A. Sánchez-Alcázar and
• Ana P. Zaderenko

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1312–1319, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.144

• cell culture loaded with: CPT (left); USM[CPT] formulation (middle); USM-PEG[CPT] formulation (right) and details of apoptotic nuclei (inserted). C: Percentage of apoptotic cell nuclei in H460 cell cultures: From left to right, control, with bare USM, with PEGylated USM, with CPT, with USM[CPT], USM

Nanocavity crossbar arrays for parallel electrochemical sensing on a chip

• Enno Kätelhön,
• Dirk Mayer,
• Marko Banzet,
• Andreas Offenhäusser and
• Bernhard Wolfrum

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 1137–1143, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.124

• operated in a parallel readout for high-throughput applications. The redox cycling response during electrochemical imaging using parallel data acquisition is demonstrated and different modes of operation for its future use in mapping neurochemical events in cell culture are discussed. Results and

Nanodiamond-DGEA peptide conjugates for enhanced delivery of doxorubicin to prostate cancer

• Amanee D Salaam,
• Patrick Hwang,
• Roberus McIntosh,
• Hadiyah N Green,
• Ho-Wook Jun and
• Derrick Dean

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 937–945, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.107

• ) was used to measure the zeta potential and hydrodynamic size of the ND before and after modification with DGEA and DOX; samples were prepared at a concentration of 200 µg/mL. Cell culture Human bone metastatic prostate cancer cells (PC3) and mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) were acquired from American

Antimicrobial properties of CuO nanorods and multi-armed nanoparticles against B. anthracis vegetative cells and endospores

• Pratibha Pandey,
• Merwyn S. Packiyaraj,
• Himangini Nigam,
• Gauri S. Agarwal,
• Beer Singh and
• Manoj K. Patra

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 789–800, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.91

• fraction in B. anthracis vegetative cell culture in most of the batches with the exception of few. The nanoparticles probably kill the cells by damaging the cell membrane mechanically, leading to leakage of cellular content. SEM observations discussed in later paragraphs support this probability. The broad

• micrographs of a) B. anthracis control cells at 5000× the arrows show occasional spores population present in the cell culture. b) B. anthracis control spores formed in G-media after seven days of incubation at 10000× magnification. Antibacterial activity of multi-armed copper oxide NPs (P5) against B

In vitro toxicity and bioimaging studies of gold nanorods formulations coated with biofunctional thiol-PEG molecules and Pluronic block copolymers

• Tianxun Gong,
• Douglas Goh,
• Malini Olivo and
• Ken-Tye Yong

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 546–553, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.64

• in water. Concentrations of the AuNRs solutions were fixed at an optical density of 1.5 for our studies. Cell culture and cell viability: As described in [27], oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cell line was cultured in DMEM containing 10% FBS with Pen Strep. All cultures were kept at 37 °C with 5

Near-infrared dye loaded polymeric nanoparticles for cancer imaging and therapy and cellular response after laser-induced heating

• Tingjun Lei,
• Alicia Fernandez-Fernandez,
• Romila Manchanda,
• Yen-Chih Huang and
• Anthony J. McGoron

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2014, 5, 313–322, doi:10.3762/bjnano.5.35

• IR820 can be used in lieu of ICG in imaging and hyperthermia applications. Three-minute laser exposure (power at 1440 J/cm2) with 5 µM IR820 or ICG can elevate the temperature of cell culture media from 37 °C to 42 °C or from 37 °C to 46 °C, respectively [9]. Despite the fact that IR820 has a lower

• by using a cell culture incubator. The results indicated that the promotion of HSP70 was minimized during rapid heating. As mentioned before, ROS can activate the expression of HSP70. The inhibition of HSP70 during rapid-rate and low thermal dose heating could possibly mean the abolishment of ROS

• was evaluated by using a Cary WinUV spectrophotometer (Varian/Agilent Technologies, Switzerland). In vitro studies of NPs Cancer cells MES-SA, Dx5, and SKOV3 were purchased from American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA) along with McCoy’s 5A medium and fetal bovine serum. Cell culture supplies

FTIR nanobiosensors for Escherichia coli detection

• Stefania Mura,
• Gianfranco Greppi,
• Maria Laura Marongiu,
• Pier Paolo Roggero,
• Sandeep P. Ravindranath,
• Lisa J. Mauer,
• Nicoletta Schibeci,
• Francesco Perria,
• Massimo Piccinini,
• Plinio Innocenzi and
• Joseph Irudayaraj

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 485–492, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.55

• were used without further purification. Titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4, >98%), anhydrous ethanol (EtOH, >99.9%), bidistilled water, acetone (>99.8%), and toluene (>99.5%), were purchased from Carlo Erba (Italy). Pluronic F-127 (cell culture test), (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES, >98

Magnetic-Fe/Fe₃O₄-nanoparticle-bound SN38 as carboxylesterase-cleavable prodrug for the delivery to tumors within monocytes/macrophages

• Hongwang Wang,
• Tej B. Shrestha,
• Matthew T. Basel,
• Raj K. Dani,
• Gwi-Moon Seo,
• Sivasai Balivada,
• Marla M. Pyle,
• Heidy Prock,
• Olga B. Koper,
• Prem S. Thapa,
• David Moore,
• Ping Li,
• Viktor Chikan,
• Deryl L. Troyer and
• Stefan H. Bossmann

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2012, 3, 444–455, doi:10.3762/bjnano.3.51

• . To measure the temperature change, a fiber optic probe (Neoptix, Quebec, Canada) was used. Cell culture RAW264.7 cells (mouse monocyte/macrophage-like cells, Mo/Ma) were cloned with the rabbit carboxylesterase (InCE) gene with Tet-On system and made double stable. Generation of the double-stable

Fabrication of multi-parametric platforms based on nanocone arrays for determination of cellular response

• Lindarti Purwaningsih,
• Tobias Schoen,
• Tobias Wolfram,
• Claudia Pacholski and
• Joachim P. Spatz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 545–551, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.58

• with gold tips can later be coated with different molecules such as proteins or antibodies. Cell culture and cell adhesion experiments: Cell culture maintenance for SHSY-5Y neuroblastoma cells was performed as described previously [24]. The substrates for cell adhesion experiments were passivated with