Figure 2: The effect of magnetic force on endothelial cells in static culture.
From: Magnetic forces enable controlled drug delivery by disrupting endothelial cell-cell junctions
Endothelial cells were incubated with 16 nm MNPs without (a) or with (b) a magnetic field. Magnetic force increased uptake of MNPs (red) by endothelial cells. Intracellular MNPs co-localized with lysosomes (green). Note that the lysosomes were stained based on virus-delivered transgene expression, which was uneven among transfected cells. Blue, nuclei. (c) Flow cytometry analysis of cellular uptake of MNPs without or with a magnetic field. (d) Quantification of intracellular MNPs by iron content (mean±s.d.; n=4; *P<0.05). Endothelial cells containing MNPs were further incubated without (e) or with (f) a magnetic field generated by an N52-grade rare-earth magnet (W × H × L=1/2″ × 1/2″ × 1″), respectively. (e) The stress fibres (green) of endothelial cells have a random orientation after internalizing MNPs (red). (f) After exposed to external magnetic force, stress fibres appear to align with the force (the arrow indicates the direction of magnetic force). Scale bar, 20 μm.
