초록 |
Hyaluronic acid (HA) plays important roles in the body through the interaction with receptors on cells. Among the receptors, LYmphatic Vessel Endothelial hyaluronan recepor-1 (LYVE-1) abundantly exist in the liver and the lymphatics with a high specificity to HA. We investigated the effect of chemical modification of HA on its LYVE-1 receptor-mediated endocytosis using quantum dots (QDots). B16F1 cells expressing LYVE-1 were incubated with HA-QDot and analyzed with a confocal microscope and a well plate reader. The results clearly showed a reduction of internalization via receptor-mediated endocytosis with the increasing degree of HA modification. Using near-infrared emission QDots, we confirmed that HA-QDot conjugates with a low degree of HA modification maintaining enough binding sites for HA receptors were mainly accumulated in the liver, while those with a high degree of HA modification losing much of HA characteristics were evenly distributed to the body. |