Understanding the nanoparticle interplay between cancer cells and immune cells remains largely elusive. during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files]. Abstract Clinical translation of poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA)-based nanomedicine is limited, partly because of the poor delivery efficiency resulting from non-specific phagocytosis by phagocytes. Understanding the nanoparticle interplay between cancer cells and immune cells remains largely elusive. In this study, a quantitative investigation on cellular internalization of fluorescent PLGA particles (100?nm, 500?nm, and 1?m) against laryngeal carcinoma cells with or without monocytes/macrophages in monoculture or co-culture systems was first performed. PLGA particles at concentrations of 5C20?g/mL show superior biocompatibility except for 500?nm and 1?m PLGA particles at 20?g/mL slightly reduce cell viability. Microscopic observation has discovered all three sizes of particles are effectively ingested by both cancer cells and macrophages; however, quantitative fluorescence examination has disclosed that this uptake index of cancer cells (mean intracellular particle fluorescence per cancer cell normalized to MethADP sodium salt that MethADP sodium salt of per macrophage) is usually substantially declined for all those PLGA particles in co-cultures compared to that in monocultures (1.35C1.05, 1.50C0.59, and 1.4C0.47 for 100?nm, 500?nm, and 1?m particles, respectively). Quantitative analysis using flow cytometry further confirmed the reduced uptake index of cancer cells in co-cultures, but higher particle counts per macrophage. It has also been found that the formation of multinucleated giant cells via the fusion of macrophages increased after PLGA treatment, which could be further exploited as a potential approach for tumor drug delivery. Overall, these findings provide new insights into the conversation of nanoparticle-immune-cancer cells, which may facilitate the application of PLGA-based nanocarriers for the treatment of laryngeal carcinoma. and 1% BSA in PBS for 30?min. Then, the coverslips were moved onto a glass slide upside-down and maintained with a drop of DAKO fluorescence anti-fade agent for visualization. Four optical channels were set with a fluorescence microscope, including bright filed for cell morphology, DAPI for cell nuclei, and GFP for particles. Exposure times of the particle channel for each fluorescent picture were recorded and used for homogenization of the fluorescence intensity across different particles, and intracellular particles were calculated by fluorescence intensity using randomly selected areas MethADP sodium salt by ImageJ (https://imagej.nih.gov/ij/). The uptake index across different particles was compared between mono-cultured or co-cultured UM-SCC-17A cells. Briefly, the mean fluorescent intensity (MFI) of internalized particles was calculated Rabbit polyclonal to ANKRD40 in, e.g., 50 cells for each cell type, which was decided as the subtraction value between the total fluorescence intensity (value?MethADP sodium salt the cell cytoplasm of the macrophage monoculture cells (Fig.?4c). Meanwhile, monoculture UM-SCC-17A exhibited an excellent uptake capability of 100?nm PLGA, proven by the bright green fluorescence signals observed inside the cell membrane (Fig.?4f). To better illustrate the intracellular accumulation of PLGA particles in THP-1 or UM-SCC-17A cells and extracellular particles in the co-cultures, overlays of bright field images with fluorescence images were applied as in Additional file 1: S3). In co-culture system, both cell types.