Carbon Quantum Dots Induced Apoptosis of Human Hepatocarcinoma Cells




01

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Basic introduction to carbon quantum dots (CQDS) and the purpose of the thesis



Carbon quantum dots (CQDS) are new types of carbon nanomaterials following fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene. Carbon quantum dots have the characteristics of strong fluorescence, wide-wavelength continuous excitation light, excellent electron acceptors and donors with adjustable emission light, good water solubility, and low biological toxicity. Therefore, carbon quantum dots are considered an ideal biomedicine. The material has broad application prospects in the fields of biomedicine and cell imaging.

Because carbon quantum dots have strong fluorescence properties, they are mainly used in biomarkers and cell imaging in the field of tumor research. In recent years, carbon quantum dots have been used as drug carriers for tumor treatment, but there are few reports on how carbon quantum dots directly affect tumor cells. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to prepare a stable carbon quantum dot sol, which can induce apoptosis of cancer cells, but has almost no damage to normal human cells.




02

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Reasons for choosing in vitro cell test



Liver cancer ranks the 6th most common cancer in the world, and 55% of patients are Chinese. However, the clinical efficacy of liver cancer drug treatment is not satisfactory. It is urgent to find drugs that can effectively induce apoptosis of liver cancer cells. For this reason, this article first considers human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells) as the object to verify the anti-tumor effect of carbon quantum dot sol.





03

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In vitro cell source and test introduction



Test group: Human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells) were purchased from American Type Culture Collection.

Control group: separate lymphocytes from peripheral blood.



Cell culture

Human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells) and lymphocytes are cultured in DMEM medium at a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius and a volume fraction of 5%.

Preparation method of carbon quantum dot sol

Carbon quantum dot sol was prepared by graphite pulse electrolysis, and the shape, size, structure and performance of carbon quantum dots were characterized by transmission electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy: Carbon The quantum dots are approximately spherical, with a particle size of 3.73~10.19nm and an average particle size of 6.93nm. The surface contains a variety of oxygen-rich functional groups and has fluorescence characteristics.

result

The cells without carbon quantum dot sol treatment showed no abnormalities, but for the treated cells, it can be seen that the carbon quantum dots were taken up by human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells) and accumulated in the cytoplasm, indicating that the cells successfully took up carbon quantum dots .

The mitochondria of human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells) have obvious swelling and the crests disappear. These results indicate that carbon quantum dots may be harmful to mitochondria and induce apoptosis of human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells).

Compared with human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells), there is no significant change in the activity of lymphocytes after being treated with carbon quantum dot sol under different mass concentration and time conditions.

Based on the above results, it can be found that the carbon quantum dot sol prepared in this paper has a significant targeting ability to human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells), and does not show significant toxicity to lymphocytes.




04

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in conclusion





The in vitro cytotoxicity test showed that: when the concentration of carbon quantum dots is higher than a certain value, the sol can induce apoptosis of human liver cancer cells and has a significant inhibitory effect on it. In addition, the human liver cancer cells after apoptosis induced by carbon quantum dots were observed by transmission electron microscopy, and the results showed that they damaged mitochondria. Within the same concentration range, the carbon quantum dot sol has almost no effect on human lymphocytes. Carbon quantum dot sol has the effect of selectively inducing apoptosis of human liver cancer cells, which is of great significance for the research of new anticancer drugs with no toxic side effects.


Source of information: Biobiology

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