Quantum dots: Small 1/2010

The cover picture shows a pathology image of a tissue from Sprague–Dawley rats exposed to quantum dots (shown as green and red glowing spheres) after intravenous injection for toxicity analysis. The results show that ZnS-capped CdSe quantum-dot formulation does not induce a toxic response to the animal, despite the slow degradation of quantum dots in vivo. Previous studies show that metabolized quantum dots are toxic to cell cultures; in contrast, these results show that the toxicity of nanoparticles in vivo may differ in vitro. By surveying different quantum-dot compositions, sizes, and surface chemistry in animal models, the toxicity of quantum dots can be determined. For more information, please read the Full Paper “In vivo Quantum–Dot Toxicity Assessment” by W. C. W. Chan et al., beginning on page 138.