What is the the size range and chemical nature of nanoparticles which can pass through cell membranes? If it is not permeable how can we induce its permeability?
yes,I am asking about simple diffusion or carrier mediated transport,other than endocytosis. I would like to know about uptake other than specific carrier molecules or peptides as mentioned by Joao Conde.
It was shown by Wang et al that QD could enter red blood cells by passive diffusion (T. T. Wang, J. Bai, X. Jiang and G. U. Nienhaus, ACS Nano, 2012, 6, 1251–1259.) but these data must be put into perspective as RBC are not capable of endocytosis. For most cell types the main uptake mechanism is still considered to be endocytosis (or phagocytosis for phagocytic cells)
When you say you want to induce permeability, do you mean:
(1) you want to alter the membrane, making it porous/leaky, but with limited side effects to the cell?
Or (2) you want to produce particles that readily pass through intact cell membranes, in a non-specific manner?
If (2), do you want your particles to interact with the cell interior in some way, rather than just passively diffuse back out through the cell membrane?
Is it possible that to make particles to pass through cell membrane with specificity,like targeting some cells only(marked by some agents).I would like to know that irreversible passive diffusion(only to inside the cells) can occur in mammalian cells?If there is a possibility that particles can come back by diffusion from cell interior them how we cam reduce this?more discussions are welcome.