TY - JOUR A1 - Liebig, Ferenc A1 - Moreno, Silvia A1 - Thünemann, Andreas A1 - Temme, Achim A1 - Appelhans, Dietmar A1 - Koetz, Joachim T1 - Toxicological investigations of “naked” and polymer-entrapped AOT-based gold nanotriangles N2 - tNegatively charged ultrathin gold nanotriangles (AuNTs) were synthesized in a vesicular dioctyl sodiumsulfosuccinate (AOT)/phospholipid-based template phase. These “naked” AuNTs with localized surfaceplasmon resonances in the NIR region at about 1300 nm and special photothermal properties are ofparticular interest for imaging and hyperthermia of cancerous tissues. For these kinds of applicationsthe toxicity and the cellular uptake of the AuNTs is of outstanding importance. Therefore, this studyfocuses on the toxicity of “naked” AOT-stabilized AuNTs compared to polymer-coated AuNTs. Poly-meric coating consisted of non-modified hyperbranched poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI), maltose-modifiedpoly(ethyleneimine) (PEI-Mal) and heparin. The toxicological experiments were carried out with twodifferent cell lines (embryonic kidney carcinoma cell line HEK293T and NK-cell leukemia cell line YTS).This study revealed that the heparin-coating of AuNTs improved biocompatibility by a factor of 50 whencompared to naked AuNTs. Of note, the highest nontoxic concentration of the AuNTs coated with PEI andPEI-Mal is drastically decreased. Overall, this is mainly triggered by the different surface charges of poly-meric coatings. Therefore, AuNTs coated with heparin were selected to carry out uptake studies. Theirpromising high biocompatibility and cellular uptake may open future studies in the field of biomedicalapplications. KW - Small-angle X-ray scattering KW - SAXS KW - Nanoparticle PY - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2018.04.059 SN - 0927-7765 VL - 167 SP - 560 EP - 567 PB - Elsevier AN - OPUS4-44844 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -