Assessment of Gold Nanomaterial Uptake in HepG2 Cells by Single Particle ICP-MS and ICP-MS

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Research article

Journal of the Korean Society for Environmental Analysis 2018;21(2):103-111.

SP-ICP-MS 및 ICP-MS를 이용한 HepG2 세포 내금 나노물질 축적 평가

김은정, 성화경, 유선경, 조은혜, 김현미, 김필제, 유승도

국립환경과학원

Abstract

The cellular uptake of gold nanomaterials (AuNPs) was investigated in human liver HepG2 cells exposed to 0.5 or 1 µg/mL of AuNPs for 24 hours. After the exposure period, the total gold concentration in the medium and cells was observed to have increased significantly in a dose-dependent manner; gold nanomaterials were mainly present in the medium, while some were present in the cells. SP-ICP-MS showed that the AuNPs concentration increased in the medium and cells, but the results were lower in comparison to the total gold concentration measured by ICP-MS. This difference was presumably due to the fact that AuNPs were ionized and aggregated, and only a part of them retained a shape that is detectable by SP-ICP-MS. The median size of AuNPs remained similar after 24 hours to that at initial exposure. In conclusion, this study confirmed the applicability of SP-ICP-MS for the analysis of the concentration and size of AuNPs and the distribution pattern of AuNPs in HepG2 cells

Key Words: Gold nanomaterials, Uptake, HepG2 cells, SP-ICP-MS, ICP-MS