FSiNPs mediated improved double immunofluorescence staining for gastric cancer cells imaging

A fluorescent silica nanoparticles (FSiNPs) mediated double immunofluorescence staining technique has been proposed for MGC-803 gastric cancer cells imaging by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Anti-CEA antibody and anti-CK19 antibody which can be both bonded to MGC-803 gastric cancer cells were first conjugated to fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) doped fluorescent silica nanoparticles (FFSiNPs) and RuBPY doped fluorescent silica nanoparticles (RFSiNPs), respectively. The MGC-803 gastric cancer cells were incubated with the mixture of anti-CEA antibody-conjugated FFSiNPs and anti-CK19 antibody-conjugated RFSiNPs, and subsequently imaged using confocal laser scanning microscopy. With this method, the in vitro cultured MGC-803 gastric cancer cells lines were successfully doubled labeled and distinguished through antigen–antibody recognition, together with the green and red signal of FFSiNPs and RFSiNPs simultaneously obtained without crossreactivity by confocal laser scanning microscopy imaging. By comparison with the conventional double immunofluorescence staining using green-emitting and red-emitting dyes, the photostability of this proposed method for confocal laser scanning microscopy imaging has been greatly improved. Furthermore, the ex vivo imaging of primary MGC-803 gastric cancer cells samples came from the tumor tissues of mice bearing the MGC gastric cancer tumor xenografts by this method have also been explored. The results demonstrate that the method offers potential advantage of photostability for the confocal laser scanning microscopy imaging of MGC-803 gastric cancer cells, and is applicable to the imaging of primary MGC-803 gastric cancer cells from the tumor tissues.