Glioma Cells Transfected with Mms6 Enhance Cellular Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Uptake and Retention in Vitro

Xiaoyong Zhang¹, Brenda Robledo¹, Jie Song¹, Xiaoping P. Hu¹

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and MR reporter genes are tools used for cell labeling and tracking using MRI. In this work, we hypothesized that expressing mms6 gene with IONPs could enhance cellular IONPs uptake and retention. After culturing with IONPs, compared to mms6-negative tumor cells, mms6-positive tumor cells contained a higher level of intracellular iron and exhibited a higher R2. In addition, mms6-positive cells retained more iron with cell passages. These results indicate that expression of mms6 can potentially enhance cellular uptake and retention of IONPs. This capability of mms6 may allow us to develop a mean for targeted uptake and retention of IONPs for MR molecular imaging.