Fig. 5
From: Single quantum dot tracking reveals the impact of nanoparticle surface on intracellular state
Single-cell metrics comparing QD coatings and cell types. a Data for each QD coating show f1, fmobile, and f1,mobile. The green dashed line in a, d–g, k, l indicates the lower limit of fmobile (0.053). Horizontal black lines indicate p < 0.05, calculated using Student’s t test, for f1,mobile comparisons. b Number of internalized QDs per cell for 40 nM loading concentrations. For mPEG and pCOOH, data are linear extrapolations from 10 nM concentrations due to high spot intensity due to clustering. c Mobile QDs per cell. d Negative correlation between fmobile and Ncell for coatings demonstrates that materials with high mobile fractions deliver less efficiently. e Negative correlation between fmobile and \(\overline {n_{{\mathrm{QD}}}}\)demonstrates that QDs are clustered in cells in which they are immobile. Coatings are indicated by color codes in d. Additional nQD distribution weightings are in Supplementary Figs. 12 and 13. f Comparison of f1,mobile/f1 and f>1,mobile/f>1 reflect the mobility for single QDs and clusters, respectively. Horizontal lines indicate p < 0.05 within coating types only. For QD coating comparisons, n = 7, 7, 16, 11, and 18 cells for mPEG, aCOOH, pCOOH, pPEG, and pZW, respectively. g Data for three cell types (A431, CHO-K1, and HeLa), showing f1, fmobile, and f1,mobile. For A431 cells, single and clumped cells were analyzed separately. Horizontal lines indicate p < 0.05 for f1,mobile. h Number of internalized QDs per cell. i Mobile QDs per cell. j Ncell correlates with the average cell area. k Little correlation is observed between fmobile and \(\overline {n_{{\mathrm{QD}}}}\), but different cell types have distinct degrees of clustering. Cell types are indicated by color codes in j. l Comparison of f1,mobile/f1 and f>1,mobile/f>1 reflect the mobility for single QDs and clusters, respectively. Horizontal lines indicate p < 0.05 within cell types only. All cell-type comparisons used pPEG-QDs, with n = 10, 9, 7, and 9 cells for CHO, HeLa, single A431, and clumped A431 cells, respectively. All error bars are s.e.m. Comprehensive p values are in Supplementary Tables 3–12
