Copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) have a wide range of applications as additives in conductive inks for printed electronics, enhanced wear resistance materials, catalysts, lubricants, and antimicrobial products, to name a few.  However, the interface of Cu NPs with biological systems and their kinetics in biological environments are poorly understood.  For example, the uptake of nanoparticles into individual cells has primarily been limited to qualitative, imaging-based techniques that heavily rely on fluorescently labeled materials.  Here we describe a synchrotron beamline x-ray fluorescence-based technique, which provides femtogram-level quantification of Cu NPs localized to discrete areas of the cytoplasm and nucleus inside individual cells. In addition to the production of detailed elemental maps, the isolation of specific regions of interest was examined through the use of multiple K-mean clustering algorithms to assist in a physical interpretation of nanoparticle localization. The results presented here demonstrate that nano-sized metal particulates (in addition to soluble metal salts) can be readily detected and quantified with extremely high sensitivity thereby facilitating mechanistic studies in rapidly evolving fields involving novel nanocomposites and nanomedicine.

Localized quantification and imaging of copper nanoparticles with single cells

244th National Meeting (2012)

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