Abstract
In recent years, iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) have been applied widely to biomedical fields. However, the relationship between the physicochemical properties of IONPs and their biological behavior is not fully understood yet. We prepared 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS)-coated IONPs, which have a neutral hydrophobic surface, and compared their biological behavior to that of Resovist (ferucarbotran), a commercialized IONP formulation modified with carboxymethyl dextran. The rate of MPS-IONP uptake by human aortic endothelial cells (HAoECs) was higher than ferucarbotran uptake, indicating that the neutral hydrophobic nature of MPS-IONPs allowed them to be absorbed more readily through the plasma membrane. However, the signaling pathways activated by MPS-IONPs and ferucarbotran were comparable, suggesting that surface charge is not a key factor for inducing changes in HAoECs. In vivo fate analysis showed that MPS-IONPs accumulated for longer periods in tissues than hydrophilic ferucarbotran. These findings could enlarge our understanding of NP behavior for advanced applications in the biomedical field.
Acknowledgments
We thank Professor Don Haeng Lee, who provided inspiration for this study, and to Ms Mi Soon Kim, for her contribution in animal care required in this study. This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2010-0006865). This work was also supported by the DGIST R&D Program of the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning of Korea (15-01-HRLA-02).
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.