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Updated: May 9, 2026
Fabrication of Magnetic Platforms for Micron-Scale Organization of Interconnected Neurons
Published on: July 14, 2021
Ligand-mediated endocytosis of nanoparticles in neural stem cells: implications for cellular magnetic resonance
Yesen Zhang1, Yongkun Guo, Bingshan Wu
1Affiliated Bayi Brain Hospital, General Hospital of Beijing Military Region, Clinical College of General Hospital of Beijing Military Region, Anhui Medical University, Beijing, China, zhangysyx@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Neural stem cells (NSCs) have great prospects in therapy for neurological disorders. However, the correlation between improved function and stem cell transplantation has not been fully elucidated. A non-invasive method for stem cell tracking is crucial for clinical studies. In the present study, NSCs were infected with lentiviral vectors, and the expression of transferrin receptor (TfR) in neural stem cells after lentivirus transfection (TfR-NSC) was confirmed by western blot analysis. TfR-NSCs were incubated with 1.8 nM ultra-small super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (USPIOs) or transferrin (Tf)-conjugate of USPIO nanoparticles (Tf-USPIOs). Tf-USPIO enhanced the cellular iron content in TfR-NSCs 80 ± 18 % compared to USPIOs. These results demonstrated that TfR overexpressed in neural stem cells specifically internalized Tf-USPIOs. Furthermore, the results indicate that TfR reporter imaging may be a valuable way to evaluate the efficacy of neural stem cell treatment.
