Magnetic Forces Enable Control of Biological Processes In Vivo

Force-Mediated Endocytosis of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Magnetic Targeting of Stem Cells

Stem cell therapy represents one of the most promising approaches for tissue repair and regeneration. However, the full potential of stem cell therapy remains to be realized. One major challenge is the insufficient homing and retention of stem cells at the desired sites after in vivo delivery. Here, we provide a proof-of-principle demonstration of magnetic targeting and retention of human muscle-derived stem cells (hMDSCs) in vitro through magnetic force-mediated internalization of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIONs) and the use of a micropatterned magnet. We found that the magnetic force-mediated cellular uptake of MIONs occurs through an endocytic pathway, and the MIONs were exclusively localized in the lysosomes. The intracellular MIONs had no detrimental effect on the proliferation of hMDSCs or their multilineage differentiation, and no MIONs were translocated to other cells in a coculture system. Using hMDSCs and three other cell types including human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs), and HeLa cells, we further discovered that the magnetic force-mediated MION uptake increased with MION size and decreased with cell membrane tension. We found that the cellular uptake rate was initially increased with MION concentration in solution and approached saturation. These findings provide important insight and guidance for magnetic targeting of stem cells in therapeutic applications.

Applications of magnetic and electromagnetic forces in micro-analytical systems

Novel applications of magnetic fields in analytical chemistry have become a remarkable trend in the last two decades. Various magnetic forces have been employed for the migration, orientation, manipulation, and trapping of microparticles, and new analytical platforms for separating and detecting molecules have been proposed. Magnetic materials such as functional magnetic nanoparticles, magnetic nanocomposites, and specially designed magnetic solids and liquids have also been developed for analytical purposes. Numerous attractive applications of magnetic and electromagnetic forces on magnetic and non-magnetic materials have been studied, but fundamental studies to understand the working principles of magnetic forces have been challenging. These studies will form a new field of magneto-analytical science, which should be developed as an interdisciplinary field. In this review, essential pioneering works and recent attractive developments are presented.