Title: In vitro intracellular trafficking of biodegradable nanoparticles dextran-spermine in cancer cell lines

Authors: Fatemeh Abedini, Hossein Hosseinkhani, Maznah Ismail, Yi-Ru Chen, Abdul Rahman Omar, Pei Pei Chong, Abraham J. Domb

Addresses: Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. ' Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan. ' Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia; Faculty of Medicine & Health Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. ' Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Yang Ming University, Taipei 112, Taiwan. ' Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia; Faculty of Veterinary & Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. ' Faculty of Medicine & Health Science, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. ' Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, School of Pharmacy, The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem 91120, Israel

Abstract: The objective of the present study is to evaluate the effect of cationic dextran on the proliferation rate and biosynthetic activities of HT29, a human colonic adenocarcinoma, and MCF7, a human breast cancer cell line. Cationic dextran was prepared by means of reductive-amination between oxidised dextran and the natural oligoamine, spermine. Biological evaluations including cell proliferation assay, and cell cycle were studied. Flow cytometery was performed in order to determine the biological behaviour of cationic dextran after internalised into the cells. Our results clearly indicated that the cationic dextran was not toxic to the cells when the concentration was 5 μg/ml or lower. The results of the cell cycle flow cytometery indicated that the means of R2 in HT29, MCF7 and HeLa cells were less than 5 three days after treatment with 5 μg/ml of cationic dextran. We conclude that the toxicity of cationic dextran is dose dependent and it is not toxic at concentration lower than 5 μg/ml, and tolerable by the cells, and it can be used as a tool for gene delivery.

Keywords: dextran-spermine; HT29; MCF7; DNA; in vitro; toxicity; intracellular trafficking; biodegradable nanoparticles; cancer cells; nanotechnology; cationic dextran; proliferation rate; biosynthesis; human colonic adenocarcinoma; breast cancer cells; cell proliferation assay; cell cycle; gene delivery.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2011.041440

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2011 Vol.8 No.8/9, pp.712 - 723

Published online: 22 Jul 2011 *

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