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. 2009:4:165-73.
doi: 10.2147/ijn.s6723. Epub 2009 Sep 10.

Irradiation stability and cytotoxicity of gold nanoparticles for radiotherapy

Xiao-Dong Zhang  1 , Mei-Li Guo, Hong-Ying Wu, Yuan-Ming Sun, Yan-Qiu Ding, Xin Feng, Liang-An Zhang
Affiliations

Irradiation stability and cytotoxicity of gold nanoparticles for radiotherapy

Xiao-Dong Zhang et al. Int J Nanomedicine. 2009.

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles are promising as a kind of novel radiosensitizer in radiotherapy. If gold nanoparticles are shown to have good irradiation stability and biocompatibility, they would play an important role in radiotherapy. In this work, we investigated irradiation effects of gold nanoparticles under 2-10 kR gamma irradiation and cytotoxicity of gold nanoparticles with human K562 cells by using Cell Titre-Glo luminescent cell viability assay. The results revealed that gamma irradiation had not induced any obvious instability and size variations in gold nanoparticles. We found that gold nanoparticles showed excellent radiation hardness with an absorbed dose conversation factor of 9.491 rad/R. Meanwhile, the surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles was enhanced obviously after 2-10 kR gamma irradiation. Subsequently, cytotoxicity tests indicated that the extremely high concentration of gold nanoparticles could cause a sharp decrease in K562 cell viability, while the low concentration of gold nanoparticles had no obvious influence on the cell viability. Our results revealed that gold nanoparticles were stable under high-energy ray irradiation and showed concentration-dependent cytotoxicity.

Keywords: colloids; cytotoxicity; gamma ray effects; gold nanoparticles.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
TEM images of the nonirradiated, 4 and 10 kR irradiated gold NPs. The corresponding size histograms are given. Abbreviations: NPs, nanoparticles; TEM, transmission electron microscopy.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The optical absorption of the nonirradiated, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 kR irradiated gold NPs. The gold concentration of group 2 is half of group 1. Abbreviation: NPs, nanoparticles.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The relative and normalized SPR enhancement of gold NPs dependent on irradiated dose. Abbreviations: NPs, nanoparticles; SPR, surface plasmon resonance.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Outline of the interaction between gamma rays and nanoparticles.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cytotoxicity of gold NPs with different concentrations and incubation with K562 cells after 48 hours. Abbreviation: NPs, nanoparticles.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Cytotoxicity of PBS buffer and incubation with K562 cells after 48 hours. Abbreviation: PBS, phosphate-buffered saline.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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