Abstract
Tracking the uptake of nanomaterials by living cells is an important component in assessing both potential toxicity and in designing future materials for use in vivo. We show that the difference in the local elasticity at the site of silica (SiO2) nanoparticles confined within a macrophage enables functional ultrasonic interactions. By elastically exciting the cell, a phase perturbation caused by the buried SiO2 nanoparticles was detected and used to map the subsurface populations of nanoparticles. Localization and mapping of stiff chemically synthesized silica nanoparticles within the cellular structures of a macrophage are important in basic as well as applied studies.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 133113 |
| Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
| Volume | 93 |
| Issue number | 13 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2008 |
Funding
This research was sponsored by DOE-OBER. We are indebted to W. Wang and B. Gu of ORNL for their support and for supplying silica, and D. Glass for help with animal experiments. Research of V.P.D. and G.S. was supported by NSF-NSEC and SRC. We are grateful to V. Castranova at NIOSH for training with the pharyngeal aspiration and BAL techniques. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)