Poster Presentation Australasian Extracellular Vesicles Conference 2018

Cell-to-cell transport monitoring of extracellular vesicles using lanthanide upconverting nanoparticles, NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ and NaYF4:Yb3+,Tm3+, in living cells (#68)

Sang Hwan Nam 1 , Taeyoung Jung 1 , Yung Doug Suh 1
  1. KRICT, korea research institute of chemical technology, Yuseong, DAEJEON, South Korea

 Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are an important transporter of intracellular molecules for cell-to-cell communication. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in its visualization in living cells. Lanthanide-doped upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) with unique optical advantages like a photo- and chemical-stabilities are suitable for research fields of them. Here we carried out dual-color (visible and NIR) imaging in living HeLa cells using two kinds of UCNPs, NaYF4:Yb3+, Er3+ (Er-doped) and NaYF4:Yb3+, Tm3+ (Tm-doped) UCNPs. A set of two adjacent cells that include Er-doped and Tm-doped UCNPs respectively was chosen, then it was monitored for many hours. In the time-lapse images, it was observed that UCNPs in one cell transport continuously into another cell after several hours. We confirmed the results are cell to cell transport of EVs using extracellular biomaker antibody.