We report the synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles (IOMNPs) using the polyol method performed at elevated temperature (300 °C) and high pressure. The ferromagnetic polyhedral IOMNPs exhibited high saturation magnetizations at room temperature (83 emu/g) and a maximum specific absorption rate (SAR) of 2400 W/gFe in water. The uniform dispersion of IOMNPs in solid matrix led to a monotonous increase of SAR maximum (3600 W/gFe) as the concentration decreased. Cytotoxicity studies on two cell lines (cancer and normal) using Alamar Blues and Neutral Red assays revealed insignificant toxicity of the IOMNPs on the cells up to a concentration of 1000 μg/mL. The cells internalized the IOMNPs inside lysosomes in a dose-dependent manner, with higher amounts of IOMNPs in cancer cells. Intracellular hyperthermia experiments revealed a significant increase in the macroscopic temperatures of the IOMNPs loaded cell suspensions, which depend on the amount of internalized IOMNPs and the alternating magnetic field amplitude. The cancer cells were found to be more sensitive to the intracellular hyperthermia compared to the normal ones. For both cell lines, cells heated at the same macroscopic temperature presented lower viability at higher amplitudes of the alternating magnetic field, indicating the occurrence of mechanical or nanoscale heating effects.
Keywords: A549 cancer cells; Alamar Blue assay; HGF normal cells; Neutral Red assay; intracellular hyperthermia; iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles; lysosomes; magnetic hyperthermia; nanoscale heating; polyol synthesis method.