Discrimination of live and apoptotic
cells is a crucial task in
the research of pharmacology, biology, pathology, and medicine science.
Recently, up-conversion (UC) luminescent materials have appealed much
attention due to their unique ability to convert low energy excitation
photons to high energy ones. However, UC fluorescence has not been
employed in the field of discrimination of live and apoptotic cells.
We present a facile and costless Stöber method to fabricate
robust silica nanoparticles (SiO2 UCNPs) exhibiting several
merits, such as narrow size distribution and UC luminescence. SiO2 UCNPs could discriminate live and apoptosis cells by taking
advantage of the unique surface property of SiO2 UCNPs
for the first time. This work is also the first demonstration of the
use of single photon excited UC fluorescence derived from nanoparticles
for biological recognition of a specific type of cells.
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