Quantum Dots Biodistribution in Tissue Organs of Healthy Male and Female Mice

摘要

Quantum Dots (QDs) are autoflorescence semiconductor nanocrystals that can be used for in vivo biomedical imaging. However, we know a little about their in vivo distribution in tissue organs and health consequences. The aim of this study was to detect QDs biodistribution in different organs from healthy female and male mice after single intravenous injection at the dose of 2.98 pmol CdSe/CDs/ZnS QDs/mouse for up to 14 day in female and 8 h in male mice. Laser scanning confocal microscope and/or florescence light microscopy was used to detect QDs in different samples. The results revealed that most of QDs were highly accumulated in spleen, liver, lung of treated mice; however, small amount of QDs was detected in kidney. There is no QDs were observed in other organs such as heart of female mice and brain of male mice of treated group. We also didn't find QDs in all samples prepared from control group and blood sample of treated mice at different time points. Effective and rapid (1 h) detection of tissue organs and blood samples using fluorescent imaging of quantum dots was demonstrated. This work was done using a very low dose (2.98 pmol/mouse) of injected QDs.