Magnetite Nanoparticles for Stem Cell Labeling with\nHigh Efficiency and Long-Term in Vivo Tracking

Abstract

Superparamagnetic\niron oxide nanoparticles (<b>SPIO-PAA</b>), ultrasmall iron\noxide nanoparticles (<b>USPIO-PAA</b>),\nand glucosamine-modified iron oxide nanoparticles (<b>USPIO-PAA-GlcN</b>) were studied as mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs) labels for cell tracking\napplications by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Pronounced differences\nwere found in the labeling performance of the three samples in terms\nof cellular dose and labeling efficiency. In combination with polylysine, <b>SPIO-PAA</b> showed nonhomogeneous cell internalization, while\nfor <b>USPIO-PAA</b> no uptake was found. On the contrary, <b>USPIO-PAA-GlcN</b> featured high cellular uptake and biocompatibility,\nand sensitive detection in both in vitro and in vivo experiments was\nfound by MRI, showing that glucosamine functionalization can be an\nefficient strategy to increase cell uptake of ultrasmall iron oxide\nnanoparticles by MSCs.