Abstract
In this work, the effects of α-linolenic acid (ALA) loaded in oil-in-water (O/W) and water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) microemulsions on cell viability, lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) viability, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were examined using Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), an LDH assay kit, and a fluorescence microscope, respectively. The CCK-8 assay demonstrated that ALA inhibited MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner. Further, the results of LDH activity and ROS levels revealed that ALA-induced cancer cell damage was closely related to oxidative stress. Under the irradiation of ultraviolet light, the microemulsion without any added fluorescent dye would emit bright blue fluorescence, and the fluorescent images of the cells treated with ALA-loaded O/W and W/O/W microemulsions at different incubation times were taken, which exhibited long-term photostability and biocompatibility. In addition, the fluorescence mechanism of the microemulsion was explained by immobilizing surfactant molecules with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties at the water-oil interface through the microemulsion with a self-assembled structure. These findings showed the potential application of O/W and W/O/W microemulsions as the label-free delivery carriers in long-term imaging of living cells and real-time release monitoring of nutrients.