MAGNETIC NANOPARTICLE LABELING OF CULTURED CANCER CELL LINE WITHOUT TRANSFECTION AGENT

Magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) labeling of stem cell has been proved its efficacy for cell trafficking. Most of the labeling technique requires mixture of iron oxide nanoparticles and transfection agent. Stem cells with ionic MNP without the aid of transfection agent were labeled previously. The possibility of high efficiency labeling of cultured cancer cell, HeLa cell, by using ionic MNP is proposed. The labeled cell morphology was observed and the intracellular iron content was determined by spectrophotometry. The cell character change was evaluated by flow cytometry where front scattering count and side scattering count (SSC) were recorded. The imaging ability of the labeling method was determined by T2 weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Labeled MNPs were accumulated at cytoplasm is observed and the iron content of labeled cell could reach 27 pg/cell. There is no cell diameter change but the cell granularity increased according to SSC data from flow cytometry. Under clinical 1.5T MR imaging, we could detect labeled cells easily were detected at the cell number of 1 x 10(5). It is concluded that labeling of cancer cell with ionic MNPs without transfection agent is an efficient labeling method which will provide non-invasive imaging method for monitoring cancer behavior.