Size effect of gold nanospheres on the photoacoustic imaging of cancerous cells

Abstract

Abstract The size effect of gold nanospheres (AuNS) used as a contrast agent for the photoacoustic imaging (PAI) of breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 have been assessed for three different sizes and at four optical densities (ODs). The decrease in the AuNS size at the same OD results in an improved PA signal. The PA signal generally increases linearly with increasing OD, with almost the same rate of increase for the three used particle sizes. It is shown that PEGylation of gold nanoparticles (AuNP) decreases the uptake of the particles by the cancerous cell therefore diminishes the PA images whereas clear images are obtained in the case of unPEGylated AuNPs.