Open Access

V. Kerleta, I. Andrlik, Matthias F. Schneider, T. Franke, M. Wirth, F. Gabor

• Nowadays, the various surfactants find wide application in pharmaceutical industry. The nanoparticle preparation process by emulsion techniques essentially requires a surfactant, most commonly Pluronic® F-68 [1]. This non-ionic tenside influences cell physiology and was tested in clinical trial for the treatment of sickle cell disease [2] and myocardial infarction [3]. Out of these reasons, even residual tenside in nanoparticle preparations might influence the cells as well as their interaction with the colloidal carriers. At this, Caco-2 single cells were incubated with fluorescent polystyrene nanoparticles, in presence of increasing amounts of Pluronic® F-68 and cell-associated nanoparticles were detected by flow cytometry. Independent from incubation temperature, the cell-associated fraction of nanoparticles concurrently increased with the tenside concentration. Ongoing from micropipette aspiration experiments this effect could be attributed to an increase of membrane stiffness ofNowadays, the various surfactants find wide application in pharmaceutical industry. The nanoparticle preparation process by emulsion techniques essentially requires a surfactant, most commonly Pluronic® F-68 [1]. This non-ionic tenside influences cell physiology and was tested in clinical trial for the treatment of sickle cell disease [2] and myocardial infarction [3]. Out of these reasons, even residual tenside in nanoparticle preparations might influence the cells as well as their interaction with the colloidal carriers. At this, Caco-2 single cells were incubated with fluorescent polystyrene nanoparticles, in presence of increasing amounts of Pluronic® F-68 and cell-associated nanoparticles were detected by flow cytometry. Independent from incubation temperature, the cell-associated fraction of nanoparticles concurrently increased with the tenside concentration. Ongoing from micropipette aspiration experiments this effect could be attributed to an increase of membrane stiffness of Caco-2 cells in presence of Pluronic® F-68. Furthermore, the toxicity assay revealed that viability of the cells remained unaffected at any concentration of Pluronic® F-68.…