Gold nanoaggregates for probing single-living cell based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Gold nanoparticles are delivered into living cells by transient electroporation method to obtain intracellular surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The subcellular localization of gold nanoparticles is characterized by transmission electron microscopy, and the forming large gold nanoaggregates are mostly found in the cytoplasm. The SERS detection of cells indicates that this kind of gold nanostructures induces a high signal enhancement of cellular chemical compositions, in addition to less cellular toxicity than that of silver nanoparticles. These results demonstrate that rapid incorporation of gold nanoparticles by electroporation into cells has great potential applications in the studies of cell biology and biomedicine.