Abstract
Micrometer-sized silicon chips have been demonstrated to be cell-internalizable, offering the possibility of introducing in cells even smaller nanoelements for intracellular applications. On the other hand, silicon nanowires on extracellular devices have been widely studied as biosensors or drug delivery systems. Here, we propose the integration of silicon nanowires on cell-internalizable chips in order to combine the functional features of both approaches for advanced intracellular applications. As an initial fundamental study, the cellular uptake in HeLa cells of silicon 3 µm × 3 µm nanowire-based chips with two different morphologies was investigated, and the results were compared with those of non-nanostructured silicon chips. Chip internalization without affecting cell viability was achieved in all cases; however, important cell behavior differences were observed. In particular, the first stage of cell internalization was favored by silicon nanowire interfaces with respect to bulk silicon. In addition, chips were found inside membrane vesicles, and some nanowires seemed to penetrate the cytosol, which opens the door to the development of silicon nanowire chips as future intracellular sensors and drug delivery systems.
Highlights
Advances in miniaturization technologies are providing new tools to study fundamental issues in cell biology [1,2,3,4]
We have developed a technology which allows a batch production of nanowire silicon chips with controlled dimensions and that are cell-internalizable
Cell viability assays with micro- and nanowire chips were performed in HeLa cells and did not reveal any significant differences in viability when compared with control cells
Summary
Advances in miniaturization technologies are providing new tools to study fundamental issues in cell biology [1,2,3,4]. Extracellular or invasive devices with integrated silicon nanowires have demonstrated their capability in many potential applications in cell biology. As relevant examples, they have been used for delivering biomolecules into living cells by using the ability of vertical silicon nanowires to penetrate the cell membrane [6,7], as efficient captors of circulating tumor cells, as shown by nanopillar arrays [24,25], or for localized single-cell electroporation [26]. In this work, we propose that silicon nanowires, used as building blocks integrated on cell-internalizable silicon microchips, will open new application opportunities of intracellular biology
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
