Jesse Trekker1, 2, Michel Hodenius3, Stefaan Soenen3, Wim Van Roy2, Marcel De Cuyper3, Liesbet Lagae2, 4, Uwe Himmelreich1
1Radiology / BioNMR unit, K.U.Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 2imec, Leuven, Belgium; 3Lab of BioNanoColloids, IRC, K.U.Leuven Campus Kortrijk, Kortrijk, Belgium; 4Solid State Physics and Magnetism, K.U.Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
To study the effect of intracellular clustering on the stability and contrast generation properties of SPIOs we prepared non-clustering PEGylated-SPIOs and clustering liposome-SPIOs. Both SPIOs were taken up by mesenchymale stem cells and showed no to limited toxicity. Intracellular studies showed a difference in clustering between both SPIOs, however no difference in contrast could be detected. On the other hand the intracellular stability of the clustered SPIOs seemed to increase.