Optical tracking and biocompatibility assessment of nanoparticles from triblock copolymer encapsulating-dye complexes

Abstract

Optical tracking and biocompatibility study of nanoparticles (NPs) have received lots of attention in nano-research areas. In this paper, PDMAEMA-b-poly(PEGMA)-b-PDMAEMA–fluorescein (DED–F) NPs were synthesized by encapsulating hydrophobic fluorescein in an amphiphilic triblock copolymer DED. DED possessed gene transfection functions as our previous work demonstrated and the encapsulated fluorescein guaranteed the bioimaging capability of DED–F NPs. The bioimaging and biocompatibility assessments were conducted in vitro using PC12 cells and in vivo through the model organism zebrafish. The results demonstrated that DED–F NPs could be internalized by cells without changing the electrophysiological conditions of ion channels on cell membranes. Moreover, the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of DED–F NPs in early developmental zebrafish indicated that these NPs could serve as biocompatible imaging agents in in vivo studies.