Viability and proliferation of endothelial cells upon exposure to GaN nanoparticles

• Tudor Braniste,
• Ion Tiginyanu,
• Tibor Horvath,
• Simion Raevschi,
• Serghei Cebotari,
• Marco Lux,
• Axel Haverich and
• Andres Hilfiker

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 1330–1337, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.124

• ) semiconductor nanoparticles. Cellular viability, adhesion, proliferation, and uptake of nanoparticles by endothelial cells were investigated. The effect of free GaN nanoparticles versus the effect of growing endothelial cells on GaN functionalized surfaces was examined. To functionalize surfaces with GaN, GaN

• nanoparticles were synthesized on a sacrificial layer of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles using hydride vapor phase epitaxy. The uptake of GaN nanoparticles by porcine endothelial cells was strongly dependent upon whether they were fixed to the substrate surface or free floating in the medium. The endothelial

• cells grown on surfaces functionalized with GaN nanoparticles demonstrated excellent adhesion and proliferation, suggesting good biocompatibility of the nanostructured GaN. Keywords: endothelial cells; GaN nanoparticles; proliferation; surface functionalization; Introduction The development of new