In vitro investigations of gold nanocages: Toxicological profile in human keratinocyte cell line

• Gold nanocages cause a cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase in Human keratinocytes.
• Concentration, incubation time and surface modification of gold nanocages are used as variables.
• G2/M phase arrest leads towards apoptosis in Human keratinocytes.

Gold nanocages (AuNCs) are comparatively novel nanostructures, as many of their characteristics are still to be exploited. The purpose of present study was to systematically investigate the toxicological effects of AuNCs on human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) utilizing Dark Field (DF)/Bright Field (BF) imaging and flow cytometry cell cycle techniques. We have applied surface modification, concentration, and incubation time of AuNCs as variables to investigate their effect on the cellular imaging and cell cycle response of HaCaT cells. The results indicate that the AuNCs interact with HaCaT cells in accordance to their surface charge and concentration. Cellular uptake is evident from DF images which lead to the cell cycle perturbations and apoptosis in HaCaT cells. AuNCs cause a prominent G2/M phase arrest after 24 h of incubation. To the best of our knowledge toxicological effects of AuNCs on cell cycle of HaCaT cell line in vitro are not reported previously.

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