Labeling of human mesenchymal stem cell: Comparison between paramagnetic and superparamagnetic agents

Paramagnetic and superparamagnetic substances are used to trace stem cell in living organisms under magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We compared paramagnetic and superparamagnetic substance for their labeling efficiency by using clinically widely used gadolinium chelates and iron oxide nanoparticles. Without the aid of transfection agent, human mesenchymal stem cells were labeled with each agent separately in different concentration and the optimized concentration was determined by maintaining same cell viability as unlabeled cells. Iron oxide nanoparticle labeling has a detecting threshold of 12 500 cells in vitro, while gadolinium chelates labeling could be detected for at least 50 000 cells. In life animal study, we found there is an eightfold sensitivity in cells labeled with iron oxide superparamagnetic nanoparticles; however, the magnetic susceptibility artifact would obscure the detail of adjacent anatomical structures. We conclude that labeling stem cells with superparamagnetic substance is more efficacious. However, the cells labeled by superparamagnetic nanoparticles might interfere with the interpretation of anatomical structure. These findings would be beneficial to applications of magnetic substances toward stem cell biology and tissue engineering.