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Cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of positively charged chitosan gold nanoparticles in human lung adenocarcinoma cells

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Abstract

Cellular uptake, cytotoxicity, and mechanisms of cytotoxicity of the positively charged Au nanoparticles (NPs) were examined in A549 cells, which are one of the most characterized pulmonary cellular systems. Positively charged Au NPs were prepared by chemical reduction using chitosan. The dimension and surface charge of Au NPs were examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering, and zeta potential measurements. The uptake of Au NPs into A549 cells was also monitored using TEM and dark-field microscopy (DFM) and z-stack confocal microRaman spectroscopy. DFM live cell imaging was also performed to monitor the entry of chitosan Au NPs in real time. The cytotoxic assay, using both methylthiazol tetrazolium and lactate dehydrogenase assays revealed that positively charged Au NPs decreased cell viability. Flow cytometry, DNA fragmentation, real-time PCR, and western blot analysis suggest that positively charged chitosan Au NPs provoke cell damage through both apoptotic and necrotic pathways.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the financial support from the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (2012-0000906, 2011-0027696, 2011-0014514) and the Development of Characterization Techniques for Nano-materials Safety Project of KRCF. This subject is supported by Korea Ministry of Environment as “Environmental Health R&D Program”.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Veterinary Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Institute for Veterinary Science, Seoul National University, 599 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-742, South Korea

    Seon Young Choi, Soo Hwa Jang, Pan Dong Ryu & So Yeong Lee

  2. Department of Chemistry, Soongsil University, Seoul, 151-743, South Korea

    Jin Park, Saeromi Jeong, Jin Ho Park, Kwang Su Ock & Sang-Woo Joo

  3. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749, South Korea

    Kangtaek Lee

  4. College of Environment and Applied Chemistry, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, 446-701, South Korea

    Sung Ik Yang

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  1. Seon Young Choi
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  2. Soo Hwa Jang
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  3. Jin Park
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  4. Saeromi Jeong
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  5. Jin Ho Park
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  7. Kangtaek Lee
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  8. Sung Ik Yang
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  9. Sang-Woo Joo
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  10. Pan Dong Ryu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Sang-Woo Joo or So Yeong Lee.

Additional information

Seon Young Choi and Soo Hwa Jang contributed equally to this study.

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Choi, S.Y., Jang, S.H., Park, J. et al. Cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of positively charged chitosan gold nanoparticles in human lung adenocarcinoma cells. J Nanopart Res 14, 1234 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-1234-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-012-1234-5

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