Figure 7

Magnetic nanospheres do not inhibit neurite outgrowth. Compared to representative phase contrast images of PC12 cells not exposed to magnetic nanospheres and either (a) not treated or (b) treated daily with 100 ng/mL nerve growth factor (NGF), cells exposed to magnetic nanospheres with an iron concentration of 6.0 mM display similar morphology in the (c) absence or (d) presence of NGF. Scale bar in (d) = 10 μm, and is valid for (a) through (d). e Quantification of the percent of neurite bearing cells shows similar neurite outgrowth for cells either not exposed or exposed to magnetic nanospheres at iron concentrations of 0.34 and 6.0 mM and treated with NGF, all of which increased neurite outgrowth compared to cells not treated with NGF. Data in (e) are means ± standard deviations from three separate experiments, * p = 0.001 compared to cells not treated with NGF (ANOVA with subsequent Tukey post-hoc test)