Nanosecond Pulse Laser Mediated High Efficient Intracellular Delivery Using TiO₂ Nanostructures

<p>Treating critical diseases in recent years demands significant research on intracellular delivery in the field of cell biology and medical science. The ability to deliver external molecules into living cells with high cell viability and transfection efficiency is of vast interest in cell biology for applications in diagnostics, drug delivery, and therapeutic development. Optoporation is emerging and has become popular for intracellular delivery in the last few years, because of less invasiveness. Still, their delivery efficiency and viability need to be improved. We demonstrate Titanium-di-oxide (TiO2) nanostructure-based optoporation platform for versatile and highly efficient intracellular delivery, which is potentially applicable for cellular therapy and diagnostics. TiO2 nanostructures were formed on titanium sheets using the electrochemical anodization technique. After the fabrication of nanostructures, cells (HCT-116, HeLa) were cultured on the substrate overnight. The confluent cells on nanostructures were then introduced with cargo material and an optoporation experiments were conducted. The experimental parameters such as cargo concentration, wavelength of a nanosecond pulsed laser, pulse duration, etc. are varied to optimize the results to achieve high cargo delivery and cell viability.</p>