Figure 8.
Targeting of peptide-coated nanocrystals to live HeLa cells. HeLa cells expressing membrane GPI-anchored avidin-CD14 chimeric proteins (av-CD14) were incubated with fluorescent Alexa 594 biocytin (a–c), red emitting biotinylated (d–f) or nonbiotinylated nanocrystals (g–i). Although many cells are visible in the bright field images (b, e, and h), only the cells expressing the av-CD14 chimeric proteins are labeled with the biotinylated probes and are detected by fluorescence (arrows, a and d). No cell staining over the entire sample could be observed for the nonbiotinylated nanocrystals (g). Overlay of the fluorescence and bright field images (c, f, and i) show the high labeling specificity on av-CD14 expressing cells. Scale bar: 10 μm.