Figure 6.

Microscale hydrogels can be loaded with gold nanorods for combined drug delivery and photothermal ablation. Transmission electron microscope image of gold nanorods (a), with comparison images of unloaded and nanorod-loaded microscale hydrogels whilst still in their 100 µm template (b) showing the slight darkening of the hydrogels. Irradiation with near-infrared light (800 nm) increased the temperature of a 480 µg/mL solution of nanorod-loaded hydrogels to 41.7 °C (c) (n = 3, error bars represent standard deviation). When administered directly to C6 glioma cells, nanorod-loaded hydrogels caused a slight decrease in cell viability when irradiated for 10 min (d), though a combination of photothermal ablation and doxorubicin delivery did not result in greater cell loss than doxorubicin delivery alone (n = 4, error bars represent ± standard deviation, asterisks represent ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001 and ns = no statistical significance).