Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 12 Induction of immune responses by nanoparticle-based vaccine
Fig. 13 Uptake of OVA-encapsulating
g
-PGA-Phe nanoparticles by DCs. DCs were incubated
with Texas Red-labeled OVA (
TR-OVA
) alone (a) or TR-OVA encapsulated within fluorescein-
labeled nanoparticles (
TR-OVA/FITC-NPs
)(b). The intracellular localization of OVA (
red
) and
NPs (
green
) was observed by confocal laser scanning microscopy
Akagi et al. demonstrated the use of nanoparticles composed of amphiphilic poly
(amino acid) derivatives as vaccine delivery and adjuvants [
62
,
102
-
104
]. To
evaluate the uptake of OVA encapsulated within
g
-PGA-Phe nanoparticles
(OVA-NPs) by DCs, murine bone marrow-derived DCs were incubated with
250 nm-sized OVA-NPs for 30 min at 37
C. The cells were then analyzed by
flow cytometry (FCM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). OVA-
NPs were efficiently taken up into DCs, whereas the uptake of OVA alone was
barely detectable at the same concentration of OVA (Fig.
13
). OVA-NPs were more
efficiently taken up than OVA alone by DCs, and the uptake of OVA-NPs was
inhibited at 4
C. These results suggest that OVA-NPs were phagocytosed mainly
via endocytosis by the DCs. In the case of OVA alone, an approximately 30-fold
