Electroporation-assisted penetration of zinc oxide nanoparticles inex vivonormal and cancerous human colon tissue

Abstract

In this study, we presented the research of the penetration of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) (30 and 90 nm), and electroporation (EP) assisted penetration of the ZnO NPs in the human normal colon (NC) and adenomatous colon (AC) tissues studied with optical coherence tomography (OCT) and diffuse reflectance (DR) measurement. The results have shown that the attenuation coefficient of colon tissue after the application of 30 or 90 nm ZnO NPs alone decreased approximately by 28% and 14% for NC tissue, 35% and 22% for AC tissue, respectively; while the attenuation coefficient of colon tissue after combined application of 30 or 90 nm ZnO NPs/EP decreased approximately by 46% and 30% for NC tissue, and 53% and 42% for AC tissue, respectively. The results illustrate EP can significantly increase the penetration of ZnO NPs in the colon tissue, especially in AC tissue. Through the analysis of attenuation coefficient and reflectance intensity of the colon tissue, we find that the accumulation of the ZnO NPs in the colon tissue greatly influenced the tissue optical properties.

Electroporation-assisted discrimination of normal, benign and cancerous human gastric tissues by OCT and diffuse reflectance spectra images

“…The basic principle of EP is to place the cells in a transient high electrical field environment in which a large number of small holes are formed on the surface of the cell membrane and the permeability of the cell membrane is greatly increased, allowing drugs, DNA and chemicals to be introduced into the cell. Many studies have proven that EP is highly efficient for the delivery of genes and large highly charged molecules [37,38]. Compared with other methods, EP has the advantages of simplicity, convenience, good repeatability, high efficiency, easy-control in terms of electrical parameters, relatively clear mechanism, and so on.…”