Labeling and in vivo visualization of transplanted adipose tissue-derived stem cells with safe cadmium-free aqueous ZnS coating of ZnS-AgInS2 nanoparticles.

The facile synthesis of ZnS-AgInS2 (ZAIS) as cadmium-free QDs and their application, mainly in solar cells, has been reported by our groups. In the present study, we investigated the safety and the usefulness for labeling and in vivo imaging of a newly synthesized aqueous ZnS-coated ZAIS (ZnS-ZAIS) carboxylated nanoparticles (ZZC) to stem cells. ZZC shows the strong fluorescence in aqueous solutions such as PBS and cell culture medium, and a complex of ZZC and octa-arginine (R8) peptides (R8-ZZC) can achieve the highly efficient labeling of adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ASCs). The cytotoxicity of R8-ZZC to ASCs was found to be extremely low in comparison to that of CdSe-based QDs, and R8-ZZC was confirmed to have no influence on the proliferation rate or the differentiation ability of ASCs. Moreover, R8-ZZC was not found to induce the production of major inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-12p70, IL-6 and MCP-1) in ASCs. Transplanted R8-ZZC-labeled ASCs could be quantitatively detected in the lungs and liver mainly using an in vivo imaging system. In addition, high-speed multiphoton confocal laser microscopy revealed the presence of aggregates of transplanted ASCs at many sites in the lungs, whereas individual ASCs were found to have accumulated in the liver.