In vitro immunomodulation of magnesium on monocytic cell toward anti-inflammatory macrophages

Biodegradable magnesium (Mg) has shown great potential advantages over current bone fixation devices and vascular scaffold technologies; however, there are few reports on the immunomodulation of corrosive Mg products, the micron-sized Mg particles (MgMPs). Human monocytic leukemia cell line THP-1 was set as the in vitro cell model to estimate the immunomodulation of MgMPs on cell proliferation, apoptosis, polarization and inflammatory reaction. Our results indicated high-concentration of Mg²⁺ demoted the proliferation of the THP-1 cells and, especially, THP-1-derived macrophages, which was a potential factor that could affect cell function, but meanwhile, cell apoptosis was almost not affected by Mg²⁺. In particular, the inflammation regulatory effects of MgMPs were investigated. Macrophages exposed to Mg²⁺ exhibited down-regulated expressions of M1 subtype markers and secretions of pro-inflammatory cytokines, up-regulated expression of M2 subtype marker and secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokine. These results indicated Mg²⁺ could convert macrophages from M0 to M2 phenotype, and the bioeffects of MgMPs on human inflammatory cells were most likely due to the Mg²⁺-induced NF-κB activation reduction. Together, our results proved Mg²⁺ could be used as a new anti-inflammatory agent to suppress inflammation in clinical applications, which may provide new ideas for studying the immunomodulation of Mg-based implants on human immune system.