Effect of Size of Gold Nanoparticles (GNP) on Intracellular Uptake and Cytotoxicity in Breast Cancer Cells

Abstract

We investigated the effects of intracellular uptake of different sizes of gold nanoparticles (GNP) ranging from 10 nm to 100 nm on breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231). The experimental results showed the cell cytotoxicity is high dose-and dimension- dependent. We further investigated the effect of intracellular uptake of GNP on cell morphology, including cell area, perimeter, and aspect ratio. We showed GNP with a diameter of 20 nm enhanced cell proliferation with a low concentration of GNP (2 μg/mL, 4 μg/mL, and 10 μg/mL). To evaluate the specific sizes of GNP affection in wound healing, we investigated the cell migration ability after GNP uptake. Also, we detect the Dll4 expression when the GNP works as a probe, in which the 10 nm GNP-LNA complex reveals significant signal intensity.