Biocompatibility and staining properties of CdSe\CdS\SiO2 nanoparticles for in-vitro biomaterials characterization

Semiconductor nanocrystals, known as quantum dots (QDs) display well-tuned emission spectra from ultraviolet to the infrared region. Their photostability is greatly enhanced compared to fluorophores making them suitable for optical bio-imaging. In this work we have studied the cytocompatibility of CdSe\CdS\SiO2 QDs towards bovine articular chondrocytes in order to establish if these nanoparticles could be used as staining system forcells in tissue engineering purposes. Studies of QDs uptake and cell viability were conducted through morphology evaluation and MTS test. The adhesion behavior of chondrocytes deposited onto scaffolds of a derivative of hyaluronic acid functionalized with octadecylamine (HA-Hy-C18) and with different amount of RGD peptide, was also studied in order to demonstrated that QDs “stained” viable cells could be employed to characterize biomaterials in vitro.