Evaluating the effect of ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for a long-term magnetic cell labeling

Abstract

In order to evaluate the long-term viability, the iron content stability, and the labeling efficiency of mammalian cells using magnetic cell labeling; dextran-coated ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIOs) nanoparticles with plain surfaces having a hydrodynamic size of 25 nm were used for this study. Tests were carried out in four groups each containing 5 flasks of 5.5 × 106 AD-293 embryonic kidney cells. The cell lines were incubated for 24 h using four different iron concentrations with and without protamine sulfate (Pro), washed with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and centrifuged three times to remove the unbounded USPIOs. Cell viability was also verified using USPIOs. There were no significant differences in the cell viability between the control group of cells and those groups with iron uptake at the specified iron concentrations. The average iron uptake ratio compared to that of the control group was (114 ± 1). The magnetic resonance images (MRI) at post-labeling day 1 and day 21 showed (75 ± 4)% and (22 ± 5)% signal decrements compared to that of the control, respectively. The Perl's Prussian blue test showed that 98% of the cells were labeled, and the iron concentration within the media did not affect the cell iron uptake. Magnetic cellular labeling with the USPIO-Pro complex had no short or medium term (3 weeks) toxic effects on AD-293 embryonic kidney cells.

Evaluation of scaffold microstructure and comparison of cell seeding methods using micro-computed tomography-based tools

“…Prussian blue staining was used to assess the presence of iron inside the hASCs. The method has been commonly used to evaluate the uptake of iron oxide particles inside cells [17,18,30]. Approximately 70 USPIO-labelled hASCs per mm 2 were seeded onto a glass coverslip.…”

“…However, the reagent is highly volatile and toxic, and hence safer methods for cell visualization would be preferred. Ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) nanoparticles have also been used to label cells in vitro [17] and in vivo [18]. Although the nanoparticles are often imaged with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [18,19], they can also be detected by micro-CT imaging [20] based on the Xray absorption differences of materials.…”

Highly Efficient Labeling of Human Lung Cancer Cells Using Cationic Poly-l-lysine-Assisted Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

“…However, both the cell membrane and IONPs are usually negatively charged, leading to the inefficient labeling of targeted cells because of repulsive electric interactions. Therefore, the complexing of positively charged transfection agents, such as polyethylenimine [ 25 , 26 ], lipofectamine [ 27 , 28 ], poly- l -lysine (PLL) [ 29 , 30 ], and protamine sulfate [ 31 , 32 ], is often introduced to enhance cell labeling efficiency through favorable electrostatic interactions between the target cells and transfection agent-modified IONPs. PLL is commonly used to enhance cell adhesion on the surface of culture dishes and is a potent modifier for IONPs [ 33 ].…”