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Confocal Raman spectroscopy to monitor intracellular penetration of TiO<inf>2</inf> nanoparticles

Abstract:

Confocal Raman microscopy, a noninvasive, label-free, and high-spatial resolution imaging technique, in combination with K-mean cluster analysis and a correlation coefficient map, was employed to trace titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles in living MCF-7 and TERT cells. The penetration of TiO2 nanoparticles into cells revealed a gradual time-dependent diffusion of nanoparticles over the entire cell. Cell apoptosis was monitored by tracing cytochrome c diffusion into the cytoplasm. A comparison with the mitochondrial clustering indicated that cytochrome c was inside the mitochondria for TiO2 concentration of 2 μg ml-1. This result demonstrates that the presence of TiO2 particles within a cell does not induce apoptosis. We demonstrated that confocal Raman microscopy allow to follow penetration of TiO2 particles in cell and to monitor the apoptotic status of the penetrated cells.