Abstrakt
Ultra-small nanoparticles with sizes comparable to those of pores in the cellular membrane possess significant potential for application in the field of biomedicine. Silicon carbide ultra-small nanoparticles with varying surface termination were tested for the biological system represented by dierent human cells (using a human osteoblastic cell line as the reference system and a monocyte/macrophage cell line as immune cells).
The three tested nanoparticle surface terminations resulted in the observation of dierent eects on cell metabolic activity. These eects were mostly noticeable in cases of monocytic cells, where each type of particle caused a completely dierent response ('as-prepared' particles, i.e., were highly cytotoxic, -OH terminated particles slightly increased the metabolic activity, while -NH2 terminated particles caused an almost doubled metabolic activity) after 24 h of incubation.
Subsequently, the release of cytokines from such treated monocytes and their dierentiation into activated cells was determined. The results revealed the potential modulation of immune cell behavior following stimulation with particular ultra-small nanoparticles, thus opening up new fields for novel silicon carbide nanoparticle biomedical applications.