The presence of serum alters the properties of iron oxide nanoparticles and lowers their accumulation by cultured brain astrocytes

作者：Geppert Mark; Petters Charlotte; Thiel Karsten; Dringen Ralf^*

来源：Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 2013, 15(1): 1349.

DOI：10.1007/s11051-012-1349-8

• Albumin
• Brain
• Endocytosis
• FCS
• IONPs

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are considered for various diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Such particles are able to cross the blood-brain barrier and are taken up into brain cells. To test whether serum components affect the properties of IONPs and/or their uptake into brain cells, we have incubated dimercaptosuccinate-coated magnetic IONPs without and with fetal calf serum (FCS) and have exposed cultured brain astrocytes with IONPs in the absence or presence of FCS. Incubation with FCS caused a concentration-dependent increase in the average hydrodynamic diameter of the particles and of their zeta-potential. In the presence of 10 % FCS, the diameter of the IONPs increased from 57 +/- 2 to 107 +/- 6 nm and the zeta-potential of the particles from -22 +/- 5 to -9 +/- 1 mV. FCS affected also strongly the uptake of IONPs by cultured astrocytes. The efficient time- and temperature-dependent cellular accumulation of IONPs was lowered with increasing concentration of FCS by up to 90 %. In addition, in the absence of serum, endocytosis inhibitors did not alter the IONP accumulation by astrocytes, while chlorpromazine or wortmannin lowered significantly the accumulation of IONPs in the presence of FCS, suggesting that clathrin-mediated endocytosis and macropinocytosis are involved in astrocytic IONP uptake from serum-containing medium. These data demonstrate that the presence of FCS strongly affects the properties of IONPs as well as their accumulation by cultured brain cells.

• 出版日期2013-1