Magnetic labelling of mesenchymal stem cells with iron-doped hydroxyapatite nanoparticles as tool for cell therapy

Superparamagnetic nanoparticles offer several opportunities in nanomedicine and magnetic cell targeting. They are considered to be an extremely promising approach for the translation of cell-based therapies from the laboratory to clinical studies. In fact, after injection, the magnetic labeled cells could be driven by a static magnetic field and localized to the target site where they can perform their specific role. In this study, innovative iron-doped hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (FeHA NPs) were tested with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as tools for cell therapy. Results showed that FeHA NPs could represent higher cell viability in respect to commercial superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) at four different concentrations ranging from 10 g/ml up to 200 g/ml and would also upregulate an early marker involved in commitment and differentiation of MSCs. Moreover, FeHA NPs were uptaken without negatively affecting the cell behavior and their ultrastructure. Thus obtained magnetic cells were easily guided by application of a static magnetic field. This work demonstrates the promising opportunities of FeHA NPs in MSCs labeling due to the unique features of fast degradation and very low iron content of FeHA NPs compared to SPIONs. Likewise, due to the intrinsic properties of FeHA NPs, this approach could be simply transferred to different cell types as an effective magnetic carrier of drugs, growth factors, miRNA, etc., offering favorable prospects in nanomedicine.