Use of carbon nanodots for visualization of the degenerative area of auricular cartilage

摘要

We investigated the effectiveness of the penetration of CNDs of various sizes into the articular cartilage of variousdegrees of degeneration affected by osteoarthritis. We performed quantitative evaluations by the intensity of thefluorescent image of the degenerated area of the articular cartilage in vitro. Using colorimetric MTT assay, we found thatour CNDs did not have cytotoxic effects on the cellular level in vitro, and this allowed us to emphasize the prospects forusing these nanoparticles as dyes for a considerable amount of observation time.