Cytotoxicity studies of II-VI semiconductor quantum dots on various cancer cell lines

Enhanced understanding of diseases at the molecular level has made a paradigm shift towards identifying new biological indicators especially in nanomaterials. It is important to make Quantum Dots (QDs) more than just passive bio-probes/labels for biological imaging and cellular studies as they offers “smart” multifunctional nano-platforms. For any biomedical, optoelectronic device application, evaluation of cytotoxicity coupled with cellular uptake and internalization of QDs are imperative. This paper describes the cytotoxic studies of hydrophilic and hydrophobic QDs, capped with polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and oleic acid in human breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7, Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK-293) and Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma (EAC) cancer cells that indicated a concentration and time dependent response in a 48 hr assay. The enhanced fluorescence emitted from the cytoplasm confirmed that the QDs were efficiently internalized by the cells. 35% cytotoxicity was observed by core-shell ZnSe/CdSe