Non-invasive Tracking and Regenerative Capabilities of Transplanted Human Umbilical-cord Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Labeled with I-III-IV Semiconducting Nanocrystals in Liver-Injured Living Mice

Acute liver injury is a critical syndrome ascribed to prevalent death of hepatocyte and imperatively requires a liver transplantation. Such methodology is certainly hampered due to deficit of healthy donors. In this regard, stem cells-based regenerative therapies are attractive in repairing injured tissues and organs for medical applications. However, it is crucial to understand the migration, engraftment and regeneration capabilities of transplanted stem cells in the living animal models. For the first time, we demonstrate rapid labeling of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) with near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent CuInS2-ZnS nanocrystals (CIZS-NCs) to develop an innovative nano-bioconjugates (MSCs-CIZS-NBCs) that exhibit 98% labeling efficiency. Prior to nano-bioconjugates synthesis, the pristine CIZS-NCs were prepared via two-step, hot-injection, rapid and low-cost domestic-microwave-refluxing (MW-R) method within 6 min. As-synthesied CIZS-NCs display high photoluminescence quantum yield ...