Evaluation of cytotoxicity and MRI contrast enhancement ability of Fe3O4@PLA-PEG iron oxide nanoparticles in vitro model

SPIONs are composed of Fe3O4 or gamma Fe2O3 cores and a biocompatible shell from Dextran, PLA, PEG, Chitosan, or PVA. SPIONs have many important applications in medicine and biology such as cell sorting, drug carrier, magnetic hyperthermia, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This study aims to check the ability of copolymer PLA-PEG coated Fe3O4 ferromagnetic nanosystems (Fe3O4@PLA-PEG) produced for MRI application. The results showed that these nanoparticles had non-toxicity on BT-474 and Sarcoma 180 cell lines. Evaluation on T2 imaging mode revealed that Fe3O4@PLA-PEG nanoparticles were capable of enhancing the MRI image contrast in different conditions, including water, cell lysates solution, and even inside the cells. The report demonstrates that Fe3O4@PLA-PEG nanoparticles have a high potential application in MRI for clinical diagnosis.