Intercellular transportation of quantum dots mediated by membrane nanotubes.

In this work, we reported that the quantum dot (QD) nanoparticles could be actively transported in the membrane nanotubes between cardiac myocytes. Single particle imaging and tracking of QDs revealed that most QDs moved in a bidirectional mode along the membrane nanotubes with a mean velocity of 1.23 mum/s. The results suggested that QDs moving in the nanotubes were coordinately motivated by molecular motors. It provides new information for the study of intercellular transportation of nanoparticles.