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Updated: Mar 7, 2026

Silicon Nanowires and Optical Stimulation for Investigations of Intra- and Intercellular Electrical Coupling
Published on: January 28, 2021
Understanding cellular internalization pathways of silicon nanowires
Kelly McNear1, Yimin Huang1, Chen Yang2,3
1Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, 560 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA.
Background:
Understanding how cells interact with nanomaterials is important for rational design of nanomaterials for nanomedicine and transforming them for clinical applications. Particularly, the mechanism for one-dimensional (1D) nanomaterials with high aspect ratios still remains unclear.
Results:
In this work, we present amine-functionalized silicon nanowires (SiNW-NH2) entering CHO-β cells via a physical membrane wrapping mechanism. By utilizing optical microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and confocal fluorescence microscopy, we successfully visualized the key steps of internalization of SiNW-NH2 into cells.
Conclusion:
Our results provide insight into the interaction between 1D nanomaterials and confirm that these materials can be used for understanding membrane mechanics through physical stress exerted on the membrane.
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