ИСТИНА

Silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) are known to be promising biocompatible and biodegradable agents for both diagnostics and therapy of cancer. Here we apply powerful non-linear optical imaging technique (coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy – CARS) for bioimaging of SiNPs in vitro. Very efficient contrast was provided by SiNPs because of high third-order non-linear susceptibility of silicon by comparison with biological medium. All the images were obtained below cytotoxic concentration of SiNPs. The proposed approach may be used for drug release and SiNPs biodegradation studies in vitro, and also for investigation of antibacterial or antiviral activity of SiNPs.