Identification of live liver cancer cells in a mixed cell system using galactose-conjugated fluorescent nanoparticles.

Bio-functioned fluorescent silica nanoparticles have been synthesized for cell labeling and cell differentiation and have shown great promise as novel fluorescent probes. The galactose-conjugated fluorescent nanoparticles (GCFNPs) have been obtained by the conjugation of amino-modified fluorescent silica nanoparticles with lactobionic acid (LA) through EDAC linkage. The GCFNPs retain excellent biological activity and can be used in bioanalysis as an immunofluorescence assay. The specific identification of target cells from the background cells have been directly demonstrated in a simple model system by a laser confocal scanning microscope, because the specific and non-specific labeling can simultaneously visualized in a given microscopic field of view. The flow cytometric analysis has proved that GCFNPs can effectively recognize target cells in the mixed cell system. The demonstration of precise identification of few liver cancer cells in the blood confirmed the excellent capability of GCFNPs in identifying specific cells in a large host cell background. The nanoparticle's excellent photostability, good biocompatibility and significant signal amplification make them well-suited for the identification of individual cells sensitively for a variety of biomedical studies such as cancer metastasis and stem cell progeny in vivo.