Cellular effects of magnetic nanoparticles explored by atomic force microscopy

The investigation of subtle change of cells exposed to nanomaterials is extremely essential but also challenging for nanomaterial-based biological applications. In this study, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to investigate the effects of iron-iron oxide core-shell magnetic nanoparticles on the mechanical properties of bovine articular chondrocytes (BACs). After being exposed to the nanoparticles even at a high nanoparticle-concentration (50 mu g mL(-1)), no obvious difference was observed by using conventional methods, including the WST-1 assay and live/dead staining. However a significant difference of Young's modulus of the cells was detected by AFM even when the concentration of nanoparticles applied in the cell culture medium was low (10 mu g mL(-1)). The difference of cellular Young's modulus increased with the increase of nanoparticle concentration. AFM was demonstrated to be a useful tool to identify the subtle change of cells when they were exposed to nanomaterials even at a low concentration.