Comparison of the in Vitro Uptake and Toxicity of Collagen- and Synthetic Polymer-Coated Gold Nanoparticles

We studied the physico-chemical properties (size, shape, zeta-potential), cellular internalization and toxicity of gold nanoparticles (NPs) stabilized with the most abundant mammalian protein, collagen. The properties of these gold NPs were compared to the same sized gold NPs coated with synthetic poly(isobutylene-alt-maleic anhydride) (PMA). Intracellular uptake and cytotoxicity were assessed in two cell lines (cervical carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma cells) by employing inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis and a cell viability assay based on 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), respectively. We found that the collagen-coated gold NPs exhibit lower cytotoxicity, but higher uptake levels than PMA-coated gold NPs. These results demonstrate that the surface coating of Au NPs plays a decisive role in their biocompatibility.