Effect of serum on PEGylated quantum dots: Cellular uptake and intracellular distribution

Protein adsorption is closely related with the interactions between nanoparticles and physiological systems, and further influences the cellular uptake and distribution of nanoparticles in cells. Although polyethylene glycol (PEG)ylation can largely reduce specific protein adsorption, some protein components in whole serum still interact with nanoparticles. In this work, PEGylated quantum dots (QDs) were used for investigating the quantitative and qualitative relationships of fetal bovine serum (FBS) and the cellular uptake/intracellular distribution in human hepatoma (HepG2) cell line. Nondenaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and two dimensional electrophoresis were used to analyze the adsorption of protein by PEGylated QDs. Quantitative cellular uptake of PEGylated QDs was determined by fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) with different FBS concentrations and incubating durations. The intracellular location of PEGylated QDs in HepG2 cells was observed using a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) and a transmission electron microscope (TEM). This work will be helpful to understand the interaction between nanoparticles and cells with serum.