Cytotoxicity of thermo-responsive polymeric nanoparticles based on N-isopropylacrylamide for potential application as a bioscaffold.

Tobiasz Deptuła; Alicja Warowicka; Anna Woźniak; Mikołaj Grzeszkowiak; Maciej Jarzębski; Magdalena Bednarowicz; Adam Patkowski; Ryszard Słomski

Tobiasz Deptuła Molecular Biophysics Division, Adam Mickiewicz University, Faculty of Physics, Poznań, Poland; and NanoBioMedical Center, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.;
Alicja Warowicka NanoBioMedical Center, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.;
Anna Woźniak NanoBioMedical Center, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.;
Mikołaj Grzeszkowiak NanoBioMedical Center, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland; and Division of Macromolecular Physics, Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.;
Maciej Jarzębski Molecular Biophysics Division, Adam Mickiewicz University, Faculty of Physics, Poznań, Poland; and NanoBioMedical Center, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.;
Magdalena Bednarowicz NanoBioMedical Center, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.;
Adam Patkowski Molecular Biophysics Division, Adam Mickiewicz University, Faculty of Physics, Poznań, Poland; and NanoBioMedical Center, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.;
Ryszard Słomski NanoBioMedical Center, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland; and Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poznań, Poland.;

Abstract

Polymeric nanoparticles based on poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (pNiPAM NPs) and their bio-medical applications have been widely investigated in recent years. These tunable nanoparticles are considered to be great candidates for drug delivery systems, biosensors and bioanalytical devices. Thus, the biocompatibility and toxicity of these nanoparticles is clearly a crucial issue. In this work, the cytotoxicity of thermo-responsive pNiPAM nanoparticles was studied, followed by a detailed analysis of the NPs morphology in growing cell cultures and their 3D structure. Cytotoxic examination was conducted for two cell cultures - HeLa (cervical cancer cell line) and HeK293 (human embryonic kidney cell line), employing MTT (3-4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay and viability tests. We used Cryo-SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and fluorescence microscopy (IN Cell Analyzer) in order to investigate the morphological structure of the polymer network. We show that pNiPAM nanoparticles do not exhibit any cytotoxicity effects on the investigated cell lines. Additionally, we report that the pNiPAM nanoparticle based scaffold promotes cell growth.