Labeling of Human Neural Precursor Cells Using Ferromagnetic Nanoparticles

Fetal human neural precursor cells (NPCs) are unique with respect to their capacity to proliferate and to preserve their potential to differentiate into neurons and glia. Human mesencephalic neural precursor cells (hmNPCs) provide a source for dopaminergic neurons. Preclinical and clinical research will benefit from reliable in vivo tracking of transplanted cells. Her we investigate the potency of very small superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (VSOPs) to label hmNPCs, the effect VSOPs on survival, proliferation, and differentiation of hmNPCs and the sensitivity of 1.5T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) detect labeled cells in living rats following transplantation When incubated with VSOPs at 1.5 mM, >95% of hmNPs incorporated VSOPs without detectable impact on cell viability (>90%) or proliferative capacity, as measured by the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and cell cycle distribution. Labeled hmNPCs differentiate into neuro (>30%) and glia with no detectable difference compared nonlabeled cells. Following transplantation into rat striata, marked paramagnetic signal changes were detected for as Ion as three months postsurgery using MRI, corresponding to the histologically-identified graft. Our data indicate that hmNPC can be labeled with VSOPs without impairment of viability proliferation, or multipotency. Labeled, transplanted cells a detectable in vivo using 1.5T MRI. Magn Reson Med 6 1321-1328, 2008. (C) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.