Photodynamic effect of mesoporous material: Titanium dioxide whiskers on SMMC-7721 cells

In this report, we have fabricated a novel nanomaterial, titanium dioxide whiskers (TiO ₂Whs), and evaluate its photodynamic characters on Rhodamine B, where TiO ₂Whs exhibit better photocatalytic activity than titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO ₂NPs). After testing the biocompatibility, we further investigated the effects of TiO ₂Whs on human hepatocarcinoma cells (SMMC-7721 cells) under UV illumination from cell level, concentration-dependent effect level, time-dependent effect level, and finally genomic apoptosis level. Our results showed that TiO ₂Whs possess more obviously photo-killing effect on cancer cells compared with that of TiO ₂NPs. These studies implied that the novel nanomaterial, TiO ₂Whs, could be utilized as a promising biomedical agent and would have enormous potential application in photodynamic therapy for cancer treatment in the future.