Studying Stem Cells with Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

In this work, we studied the cytotoxicity effects of magnetic nanoparticles on stem cells, depending on their size, concentration, and type. We use multipotent mesenchymal stem cells of the human 4BL line. Fe
₃
O
₄
nanoparticles were used as markers for stem cells. We prepared 34 samples with nanoparticles, cells with cover, cells without cover, and nanoparticles-cells composite. The samples were studied by cell counting and fluorescent microscopy methods. We found that nanoparticles with a size of 10 nm at the lowest applied concentration (0.625 μg/ml) caused a sharp decrease in the number of living cells in the culture medium, and with further increase in their concentration, the cytotoxic effect was significantly enhanced. For nanoparticles with a size of 20 nm, the stimulating effect of cell proliferation was observed at concentrations of 5 and 10 μg/ml. Iron oxide nanoparticles with a size of 200 nm did not have a significant effect on cell viability, possibly because they did not penetrate into the cells.