Gong Xiaoyuan, Wang Fengling, Huang Yang, Lin Xiao, Chen Cheng, Wang Fuyou, Yang Liu
Center for Joint Surgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical University) 30 Gaotanyan Main St. Shapingba Dist. Chongqing 400038 PR China
RSC Adv. 2018 Feb 16;8(14):7633-7640. doi: 10.1039/c7ra12039g. eCollection 2018 Feb 14.
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent form of joint disease and lacks effective treatment. Cell-based therapy through intra-articular injection holds great potential for effective intervention at its early stage. Despite the promising outcomes, major barriers for successful clinical application such as lack of specific targeting of transplanted cells still remain. Here, novel polyethylenimine-wrapped iron oxide nanoparticles (PEI/IONs) were utilized as a magnetic agent, and the efficiency of PEI/ION labeling, and the influence on the chondrogenic properties of chondrocytes were evaluated; the feasibility of magnetic-targeting intra-articular injection with PEI/ION labeled autologous chondrocytes was investigated using a rabbit articular cartilage defect model. Our data showed that chondrocytes were conveniently labeled with PEI/IONs in a time- and dose-dependent manner, while the viability was unaffected. No significant decrease in collagen type-II synthesis of labeled chondrocytes was observed at low concentration. Macrographic and histology evaluation at 1 week post intra-articular injection revealed efficient cell delivery at chondral defect sites in the magnetic-targeting group. In addition, chondrocytes in the defect area presented a normal morphology, and the origin of cells within was confirmed by immunohistochemistry staining against BrdU and Prussian blue staining. The present study shows proof of concept experiments in magnetic-targeting of PEI/ION labeled chondrocytes for articular cartilage repair, which might provide new insight to improve current cartilage repair strategies.
骨关节炎（OA）是最常见的关节疾病形式，且缺乏有效的治疗方法。通过关节腔内注射进行基于细胞的治疗在其早期有效干预方面具有巨大潜力。尽管取得了令人鼓舞的成果，但成功临床应用的主要障碍仍然存在，例如移植细胞缺乏特异性靶向。在此，新型聚乙烯亚胺包裹的氧化铁纳米颗粒（PEI/IONs）被用作磁性剂，评估了PEI/ION标记的效率以及对软骨细胞软骨生成特性的影响；使用兔关节软骨缺损模型研究了用PEI/ION标记的自体软骨细胞进行磁靶向关节腔内注射的可行性。我们的数据表明，软骨细胞能够以时间和剂量依赖性方式方便地被PEI/IONs标记，而细胞活力不受影响。在低浓度下，未观察到标记软骨细胞的II型胶原蛋白合成有显著下降。关节腔内注射后1周的大体和组织学评估显示，磁靶向组在软骨缺损部位实现了有效的细胞递送。此外，缺损区域的软骨细胞呈现正常形态，通过抗BrdU免疫组织化学染色和普鲁士蓝染色证实了其中细胞的来源。本研究展示了PEI/ION标记的软骨细胞用于关节软骨修复磁靶向的概念验证实验，这可能为改进当前软骨修复策略提供新的见解。
