Electroporation-assisted penetration of zinc oxide nanoparticles in ex vivo normal and cancerous human colon tissue

Abstract

In this study, we presented the research of the penetration of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) (30 and 90 nm), and electroporation (EP) assisted penetration of the ZnO NPs in the human normal colon (NC) and adenomatous colon (AC) tissues studied with optical coherence tomography (OCT) and diffuse reflectance (DR) measurement. The results have shown that the attenuation coefficient of colon tissue after the application of 30 or 90 nm ZnO NPs alone decreased approximately by 28% and 14% for NC tissue, 35% and 22% for AC tissue, respectively; while the attenuation coefficient of colon tissue after combined application of 30 or 90 nm ZnO NPs/EP decreased approximately by 46% and 30% for NC tissue, and 53% and 42% for AC tissue, respectively. The results illustrate EP can significantly increase the penetration of ZnO NPs in the colon tissue, especially in AC tissue. Through the analysis of attenuation coefficient and reflectance intensity of the colon tissue, we find that the accumulation of the ZnO NPs in the colon tissue greatly influenced the tissue optical properties.