利用量子点优越的光学性质，用于追踪炎症消退时炎症性细胞向淋巴结的迁移。通过电脉冲作用在小鼠胫前肌制造炎症模型并注射量子点后，发现：量子点在炎症部位呈聚集状态，并被炎症细胞所内吞；在引流淋巴结中，量子点主要分布于T细胞区域；透射电镜与ConfA研究表明，多数量子点位于单核细胞/巨噬细胞的内吞体内。本工作表明，量子点可以用于标记细胞特别是具有吞噬性的细胞的迁移情况，因此在免疫学研究中可能具有重要应用。

Novel fluorescent silkworm silks incorporated with CdTe quantum dots (QDs) have been prepared via electrostatic assembly using a polyelectrolyte (PE) as a fixer. The bright fluorescence of the silks/QDs obtained could be tuned from green to near-infrared (NIR) by changing the QD size, thereby enabling the fluorescence to penetrate through an opaque pig skin of ～3.5mm in thickness. A large amount of the QDs were not only deposited on the surface of the silk, but also found permeated into the silk. The silk incorporated with just one PE/QDs/PE layer exhibited a smooth surface. However, the presence of more PE/QDs/PE layers in the silk resulted in an increased surface roughness. The mechanical properties of the silks incorporated with one PE/QDs/PE layer were close to those of pure silks, but the maximum pull force and elastic limit elongation at break of a single silk thread decreased with increasing number of PE/QDs/PE layers. Although a very small amount of Cd2+and Te2-ions were released from the silks/QDs in neutral and alkaline aqueous solutions, nearly no QD were released from these fluorescent silks. The fluorescence intensity of the silk/QDs was stable in neutral and alkaline aqueous solutions, but significantly decreased in acidic solution. The simple preparation method of the silks/QDs reported in this paper is both highly efficient and low cost, and the fluorescent silks obtained are anticipated to be of great interest for fabricating multicolored fluorescent cloths and anticounterfeiting labels, as well as being useful for other bio-or physico-related applications.

In order to quantify the amount of ligands or poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) on each vector, here we developed a system in which poly-L-glutamic acid (PLG) was used as surface modifi cation loading backbone, to which one PEG (MW 5000, 10000, 20000) or epidermal growth factor (EGF) was linked. The PLG conjugates can electro-statically adsorb upon DNA/polycation complex with positive charge, and, the amount of EGF or PEG on the surface of complexes could be varied. We have made a series of complexes containing the various PLG conjugates and examined their physicochemical properties, and made a comparison of properties and transfection effi ciency between these complexes. EGF-and PEG-modifi ed complexes showed 10-25-folds higher cell transfection effi ciency than unmodifi ed complexes in medium with or without serum.