Proliferative Effects and Cellular Uptake of Ceramic Nanoparticles in Cancer and Normal Cells

Abstract

The high biocompatibility, wear resistance, and high surface area-to-volume ratios of calcium phosphate (CaP) nanoparticles make them materials of great interest for a very broad range of medical applications, such as dentistry, drug delivery, biomedical imaging, gene transfection and silencing, biomedical imaging, immunisation, and bone substitution. While their use as an enamel remineralisation agent, a bone substitution material, an implant coating, and drug/gene delivery agents is widely approved by the regulating bodies, insufficient attention has been paid to the interactions of CaP-based nanoparticles with cells and organs once in the bloodstream and distributed through the body. Here, three different CaP-based nanoparticles (CP: calcium phosphate, TCP: tricalcium phosphate, and HAp: hydroxyapatite) were examined for the proliferative effects, oxidative damage potential, and cellular uptake in the human embryonic kidney (HEK293) and pancreatic cancer (Panc-1) cell lines. The physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles were characterised by Teller analysis, and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. Maximum proliferative effects were generated by 400 mu g center dot ml-1 TCP (220 %) in HEK293 cells. Interestingly, although CP nanoparticles had the highest reactive oxygen species formation capacity in the HEK293 cells, they exhibited the lowest proliferative effects and a relatively low internalisation rate, suggesting a minimal correlation between the cellular uptake level and oxidative potential.