Degradation of hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles in human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

Wanyin Zhai, Changliang He, Lei Wu, Yue Zhou, Hangrong Chen, Jiang Chang, Hongfeng Zhang

State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, People's Republic of China.

Journal of biomedical materials research. Part B, Applied biomaterials 2012 Jul

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Hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSNs) are considered a potential drug delivery system owing to their recognized advantages in drug loading and releasing. However, whether HMSN could be degraded inside the cells remains unknown. In this study, based on the observations by transmission electron microscopy, fluorescence staining, enzymatic proteolysis, and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, HMSNs were proved to be degradable in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. The degradation first took place in cytoplasm and lysosomes, and secondly in lysosomes only. The Si content in culture medium increased as the time increases, suggesting that the degradation product inside the cells could be excreted into the culture medium. The degrading rate is fast in the first 2 days and slow after 2 days. The present results provided a clue to further research on the metabolic way and cytotoxicity of silica nanoparticles. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Citation

Wanyin Zhai, Changliang He, Lei Wu, Yue Zhou, Hangrong Chen, Jiang Chang, Hongfeng Zhang. Degradation of hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles in human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Journal of biomedical materials research. Part B, Applied biomaterials. 2012 Jul;100(5):1397-403