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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Nov 26.
Published in final edited form as: ACS Nano. 2013 Oct 24;7(11):10362–10370. doi: 10.1021/nn404782p

Figure 1. Schematic of nanoparticle trafficking and fate upon intravenous administration.

Figure 1

a, Schematic illustration of the blood circulation, dissociation dynamics, tumor accumulation, and trafficking of self-assembled nanoparticles upon intravenous administration(I) in a tumor-bearing mouse. Several distinct compartments include the blood (II), the tumor (IV, interstitium), lymphatics and lymph nodes (V), and clearance organs of the mononuclear phagocyte system (III). b, Schematic structure of a self-assembled lipid-nanoparticle that consists of a near infrared quantum dot core covered by a self-assembled lipid-coating that is composed of Cy7-labeled and PEGylated lipids (QD710-Cy7-PEG). c, TEM images of QD710-Cy7-PEG with (lower) and without negative staining (upper). Both scale bars are 20 nm. d, Emission spectra of QD710-Cy7-PEG nanoparticles in PBS with different percentages of Cy7-lipids in the lipid corona. λExc = 500 nm. At increasing content of Cy7-lipids, the QD emission decreased dramatically, while Cy7 emission increased correspondingly, confirming the occurrence of FRET from the QD cores to the Cy7 dyes in the corona.