PLoS ONE (Jan 2012)

Longitudinal tracking of human fetal cells labeled with super paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in the brain of mice with motor neuron disease.

  • Paolo Bigini,
  • Valentina Diana,
  • Sara Barbera,
  • Elena Fumagalli,
  • Edoardo Micotti,
  • Leopoldo Sitia,
  • Alessandra Paladini,
  • Cinzia Bisighini,
  • Laura De Grada,
  • Laura Coloca,
  • Laura Colombo,
  • Pina Manca,
  • Patrizia Bossolasco,
  • Francesca Malvestiti,
  • Fabio Fiordaliso,
  • Gianluigi Forloni,
  • Massimo Morbidelli,
  • Mario Salmona,
  • Daniela Giardino,
  • Tiziana Mennini,
  • Davide Moscatelli,
  • Vincenzo Silani,
  • Lidia Cova

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032326
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 2
p. e32326

Abstract

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Stem Cell (SC) therapy is one of the most promising approaches for the treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Here we employed Super Paramagnetic Iron Oxide nanoparticles (SPIOn) and Hoechst 33258 to track human Amniotic Fluid Cells (hAFCs) after transplantation in the lateral ventricles of wobbler (a murine model of ALS) and healthy mice. By in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo approaches we found that: 1) the main physical parameters of SPIOn were maintained over time; 2) hAFCs efficiently internalized SPIOn into the cytoplasm while Hoechst 33258 labeled nuclei; 3) SPIOn internalization did not alter survival, cell cycle, proliferation, metabolism and phenotype of hAFCs; 4) after transplantation hAFCs rapidly spread to the whole ventricular system, but did not migrate into the brain parenchyma; 5) hAFCs survived for a long time in the ventricles of both wobbler and healthy mice; 6) the transplantation of double-labeled hAFCs did not influence mice survival.