Cell Behavioral Changes after the Application of Magneto-Mechanical Activation to Normal and Cancer Cells

Abstract

In vitro cell exposure to nanoparticles, depending on the applied concentration, can help in the development of theranostic tools to better detect and treat human diseases. Recent studies have attempted to understand and exploit the impact of magnetic field-actuated internalized magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) on the behavior of cancer cells. In this work, the viability rate of MNP’s-manipulated cancerous (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231) and non-cancerous (MCF-10A) cells was investigated in three different types of low-frequency magnetic fields: static, pulsed, and rotating field mode. In the non-cancerous cell line, the cell viability decreased mostly in cells with internalized MNPs and those treated with the pulsed field mode. In both cancer cell lines, the pulsed field mode was again the optimum magnetic field, which together with internalized MNPs caused a large decrease in cells’ viability (50–55% and 70% in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231, respectively) while the static and rotating field modes maintained the viability at high levels. Finally, F-actin staining was used to observe the changes in the cytoskeleton and DAPI staining was performed to reveal the apoptotic alterations in cells’ nuclei before and after magneto-mechanical activation. Subsequently, reduced cell viability led to a loss of actin stress fibers and apoptotic nuclear changes in cancer cells subjected to MNPs triggered by a pulsed magnetic field.

Keywords

• magneto-mechanical activation
• magnetic nanoparticles
• breast cancer cell lines
• cytotoxicity
• cytoskeleton
• DAPI staining