Biocompatibility and Toxicity of Magnetic Nanoparticles in Regenerative Medicine

Table 1

Summary of in vitro studies performed in recent years highlighting commonly used assays aimed at investigating toxicity of SPIONs on stem cells and the results.

Particle used	Biological polymer	Particle size	Cells type	Particle concentration	Toxicity assay	Result	Reference
Feridex (FDA approved)	Dextran	80–150 nm	rMSC & mMSC	25 μg/mL	Live/dead (7 days after labelling) differentiation; assays	No loss of cell viability observed after 7 days with or without either TA	[32]
Ferric oxide (noncommercial)	Poly-L-lysine	15 nm	HUC	20 μg/mL	MTT (5 days continued culture) cellular; apoptosis—annexin V/PI double stainassay		[19]
Noncommercial	Silica	110 nm	hMSCs	200 μg/mL	MTT ( 1 hr and 24 hrs); Trypan Blue	No reduction in viability after 1 hour. No; reduction in cell proliferation	[38]
Feridex	Dextran	80–150 nm	hMSC	100 μg/mL	FACS ( fluorescence-activated cell sorting) to; evaluate cell death—to determine if iron oxide; incorporation affects surface markers expression	No reduction in viability after 12 hours	[39]
Iron fluorescent particle	Polystyrene	900 nm	pMSC		Trypan Blue; MTT; Morphological observations; Differentiation studies	Cells maintained viability and retained label for up to 3 months. Differentiation capacity not; altered	[22]
Manganese oxide nanoparticles	Mesoporous silica	65 nm	mMSCs		MTS	75% cell viability; Limited cell differentiation in the osteogenic lineage	[40]
Commercially available		1630 nm	rMSCs	2.8 μg/mL	Trypan Blue	Did not affect cell viability	[41]
Feridex	Dextran	150 nm	ESCs	50 μg/mL	Trypan Blue	Did not affect cell viability	[42]
	HEDP		rMSC	25, 50, 100 μg/mL	MTS	Cell viability not affected at lower concentrations but viability decreased to 70% at 100 μg/mL	[43]
Feridex	uncoated	80–150	hMSC	50–250 μg/mL	Comet assay	Did not affect viability	[44]

rMSC: rat mesenchymal stem cells; mMSC: mouse mesenchymal stem cell; hMSC: human mesenchymal stem cells; pMSC: porcine mesenchymal stem cells; HUC: human umbilical cells; HEDP: hydroxyethylidene bisphosphonic acid.