The effect of gold nanoparticle size on osteogenic differentiation of adipose-derived stem cells

There have been many medical applications based on gold nanoparticles (GNPs) over the past several centuries. Recently, researchers have focused on bone tissue engineering applications utilizing GNPs. The effect of various sizes of gold nanoparticles on the differentiation of human adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) into osteoblasts was investigated. The concentration of gold nanoparticles was fixed at 1 μM and varying sizes of 15, 30, 50, 75 and 100 nm (spherical GNPs) were used. The lack of cytotoxicity was confirmed by establishing viability of ADSCs using cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and live/dead assays. The results showed that each size of GNPs had no significant toxicity on ADSCs during 1 week of incubation. Osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs was confirmed by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) staining, ALP activity, calcium deposition, and real time PCR experiments. It was found, through dark field assays and microscope cell images, that 30 nm and 50 nm GNPs were preferentially up taken into the ADSCs. As expected, all sizes of gold nanoparticles promoted the differentiation of ADSCs toward osteoblasts more than control. Among all sizes, 30 and 50 nm GNPs appeared to have the highest differentiation rates. The data consistently demonstrated that 30 and 50 nm GNPs are the most effective in promoting osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs.