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Hi Dries;

I'm  not sure of the current state of the art of QD coatings, but we  
found that phagocytosis of QD's, even when coated with PEG's, occurred  
to some degree or another. We were able to take advantage of this  
property, as the rates of systemic clearance of Q-Tracker dots, used  
as an agioscopic dye, differed and depended upon the health of the  
animal subject. Our realization was that "benign" QD's will be  
endocytozed (a good thing for our analysis)... it's just a matter of  
time.

There are two articles that may interest you in the Nov-Dec 2007 issue  
of Biomedical Optics:

Endotoxemia increases the clearance of mPEGylated 5000-MW quantum dots  
as revealed by multiphoton microvascular imaging
Bateman, et al
J. Biomed. Opt. Vol. 12, 064005 (Dec. 18, 2007)

Core-shell silica nanoparticles as fluorescent labels for nanomedicine
Jinhyang Choi, et al
J. Biomed. Opt. Vol. 12, 064007 (Dec. 28, 2007)

Hope this helps,

Kevin

On 17-Jun-08, at 7:07 AM, Dries Vercauteren wrote:

> Search the CONFOCAL archive at http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
>
> Dear all,
>
> an easy question;
>
> are free (unconjugated) Quantum Dots normally not taken up via  
> endocytosis? Or is this dependent on charge, avidin coating, ...?
>
> Thanks for the response in advance!
>
> Dries
>
> -- 
> Dries Vercauteren, PhD student
> Master of Bioscience Engineering: Cell and Gene Biotechnology
>
> Ghent Research Group on Nanomedicines
> www.ugent.be/fw/en/research/biofys
> Faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, Ghent University
> Harelbekestraat 72, 9000 Ghent
> Belgium
>
> Phone: +329/264 80 49
> Mobile: +32485/30 69 80
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]

Kevin Hodgson
BioImaging Facility, Botany
UBC Vancouver Canada
www.emlab.ubc.ca
604-822-6996