1. Size‐Dependent Electroporation of Dye‐Loaded Polymer Nanoparticles for Efficient and Safe Intracellular Delivery
- Author
-
Anne Runser, Andreas Reisch, Sylvie Egloff, Andrey S. Klymchenko, Laboratoire de Bioimagerie et Pathologies (LBP), and Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
Materials science ,Polymers ,[SDV.IB.IMA]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Bioengineering/Imaging ,Nanoparticle ,Tetrazolium Salts ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,Cytosol ,Humans ,General Materials Science ,Particle Size ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,030304 developmental biology ,Fluorescent Dyes ,chemistry.chemical_classification ,0303 health sciences ,Drug Carriers ,Fluorescent nanoparticles ,Electroporation ,Size dependent ,General Chemistry ,Polymer ,[CHIM.MATE]Chemical Sciences/Material chemistry ,Endocytosis ,0104 chemical sciences ,chemistry ,Single-particle tracking ,Biophysics ,Nanoparticles ,Intracellular ,HeLa Cells - Abstract
Efficient and safe delivery of nanoparticles (NPs) into the cytosol of living cells constitutes a major methodological challenge in bio-nanotechnology. Electroporation allows direct transfer of NPs into the cytosol by forming transient pores in the cell membrane, but it is criticized for invasiveness, and the applicable particle sizes are not well defined. Here, in order to establish principles for efficient delivery of NPs into the cytosol with minimal cytotoxicity, the influence of the size of NPs on their electroporation and intracellular behavior is investigated. For this study, fluorescent dye-loaded polymer NPs with core sizes between 10 and 40 nm are prepared. Optimizing the electroporation protocol allows minimizing contributions of endocytosis and to study directly the effect of NP size on electroporation. NPs of20 nm hydrodynamic size are efficiently delivered into the cytosol, whereas this is not the case for NPs of30 nm. Moreover, only particles of core size15 nm diffuse freely throughout the cytosol. While electroporation at excessive electric fields induces cytotoxicity, the use of small NPs20 nm allows efficient delivery at mild electroporation conditions. These results give clear methodological and design guidelines for the safe delivery of NPs for intracellular applications.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF