posted on 2017-05-12, 00:00authored byTing Wang, Lu Wang, Xiaoming Li, Xingjie Hu, Yuping Han, Yao Luo, Zejun Wang, Qian Li, Ali Aldalbahi, Lihua Wang, Shiping Song, Chunhai Fan, Yun Zhao, Maolin Wang, Nan Chen
Nanoparticles
(NPs) have shown great
promise as intracellular imaging probes or nanocarriers and are increasingly
being used in biomedical applications. A detailed understanding of
how NPs get “in and out” of cells is important for developing
new nanomaterials with improved selectivity and less cytotoxicity.
Both physical and chemical characteristics have been proven to regulate
the cellular uptake of NPs. However, the exocytosis process and its
regulation are less explored. Herein, we investigated the size-regulated
endocytosis and exocytosis of carboxylated polystyrene (PS) NPs. PS
NPs with a smaller size were endocytosed mainly through the clathrin-dependent
pathway, whereas PS NPs with a larger size preferred caveolae-mediated
endocytosis. Furthermore, our results revealed exocytosis of larger
PS NPs and tracked the dynamic process at the single-particle level.
These results indicate that particle size is a key factor for the
regulation of intracellular trafficking of NPs and provide new insight
into the development of more effective cellular nanocarriers.