Enhancing internalization of silica particles in myocardial cells through surface modification

Surface modification in nanostructured mesoporous silica particles (MSNs) can significantly increase the uptake in myocardial cells. Herein, MSNs particles were synthesized and chemically functionalized to further assess their biocompatibility in rat myocardial cell line H9c2. The surface modification resulted in particles with an enhanced cellular internallization (3-fold increase) with respect to pristine particles. Apoptosis events were not evident at all, while necrosis incidence was significant only at a higher doses (>500μg/mL). In particular, the percentage of necrotic cells decrease in a statistically significant manner for the functionalized particles at lower doses than 100μg/mL. This study concludes that the proposed surface functionalization of MSNs particles does not compromise their viability on H9c2 cells, and therefore they could potentially be used for biomedical purposes. Fourier-transform infrared, Raman, TGA/DSC, N₂ adsorption-desorption, and TEM techniques were used to characterize the as-prepared materials. Confocal microscopy and flow cytometry analyses were carried out to measure the histograms of cell complexity and the half maximal inhibitory concentration, respectively. Reactive oxygen species generation was accessed using assays with MitoSOX and Amplex Red fluoroprobes.