The interaction between gold nanorods and different subtypes of breast cancer cells

Gold nanorods (GNRs) are promising nanomaterials for applications in biomedicine because of their special optical properties, and tremendous works have reported their potential in imaging, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Unfortunately, study on gold nanorods and cell interactions is still incomplete, and the interplay between gold nanorods and different subtype of breast cancer cells is rarely reported. In the study, two different type of gold nanorods (GNRs and GNRs@SiO2) was synthesized. And we investigated the interactions of gold nanorods (GNRs and GNRs@SiO2) with ER+ (MCF-7)/ER-(MDA-MB-231) breast cancer cells, including cytotoxicity, cellular uptake. Our results showed that GNRs are more cytotoxic to MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells than GNRs@SiO2. And MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells internalize GNRs in a time dependence, and MCF-7 is far more effective in taking up GNRs. The result suggests different subtype of tumor cells should be considered to fully understand the interactions of gold nanorods and cells.

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