cellular imaging and uptake studies of peg-coated spion in human derived endometrium mesenchymal stem cell

Introduction: as human endometrium mesenchymal stem cells (hemscs) therapy has been used to treat different diseases, its tracing is essential. low image sensitivity is one of the most critical problems. in this study, thus, transplanted hemscs were labeled with the peg-coated spion nanoparticles for the first time to improve low image sensitivity at magnetic resonance imaging (mri) for more efficient in vivo tracking of cells. to achieve the goals, we evaluated the effects of various concentrations of peg-coated spion (20nm) incubated with hemscs on cytotoxicity and cell survival. peg-coated spion uptake into the cytoplasm of hemscs was confirmed by prussian blue staining 48 and 72h after incubation at 0, 100, 200, and 300 μg/ml concentrations; the data on the atomic absorption spectroscopy (aas) confirmed that peg-coated spion absorption by hemscs increased as much as the dose (p<0.05). in general, higher concentrations of peg-coated spion improved mri image contrast and enhanced cell fate tracking. our results suggested that 100 μg/ml peg-coated spion was ideal because the cytotoxicity was not statically significant compared to that of the control group (p<0.05). at 200 and 300 μg/ml concentrations, peg-coated spion caused increased oxidative stress and initiated apoptosis and autophagy in hemscs. the mechanism of its action was found by evaluation of several key genes; the mrna levels of apoptosis and autophagy markers, including bax, caspase3, beclin, lc3, and tp53 rose significantly (p<0.05), while bcl2 decreased at 300 μg/ml concentration (p<0.05). therefore, higher concentrations of peg-coated spion can increase ros production in a dose and time-dependent manner.