Polyethylenimine-coated magnetic nanoparticles with improved biocompatibility for hyperthermia

Abstract

Biocomfortable polyethylenimine (PEI) coated Fe ₃ O ₄ nanoparticles (NPs) have been successfully fabricated for their magnetic hyperthermia performance. After coating with PEI, the sample reveals a tiptop performance of magnetic property and an enhanced biocompatibility. Compared with Fe ₃ O ₄ NPs, PEI-coated Fe ₃ O ₄ NPs do not induce notable cell cytotoxic effect at their higher concentration, which indicates that PEI-coated Fe ₃ O ₄ NPs has improved biocompatibility. The results show that PEI-coated Fe ₃ O ₄ NPs not only possess effective magnetic property for cancer hyperthermia treatment or gene delivery, but also demonstrates an improved biocompatibility for various biomedical applications.