The evaluation of cell respiratory effect of magnetic nanoparticles using viability assay and chronoamperometric method

We evaluated the respiratory effect of Fe3O4@polyacrylamide magnetic nanoparticles using both 3-(4, 5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) viability assay and the chronoamperometric method, based on screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPE). Preliminary results show that nanoparticles have no significant effect on the respiration of rat liver cells from these two detection methods. The chronoamperometric method using SPE shows that the current responses are proportional to the Ferro cyanide concentrations, with a linear range of 0.03∼ 1.0 mM (R2=0.9923), and detection limit (S/N=3) at 32 μM. The results of paired t-test analysis indicate that assessment of hepatocyte viabilities based on the chronoamperometric method were comparable to those of the MTT viability assay. The chronoamperometric method can be used as a quick alternative method for assessing liver-cell viability.