Experimental and theoretical comparison of intracellular import of polymeric nanoparticles and small molecules: toward models of uptake kinetics

Here we present an uptake study comparing the outcomes for free molecular dye and nanoparticles labeled with the same dye. We find that the intracellular nanoparticle concentration grows linearly in time, and that the uptake is essentially irreversible, with the particles accumulating in lysosomes. A simple flux-based approach is presented to model nanoparticle uptake, taking into account the effect of cell division on the intracellular nanoparticle load.182