Role of nanoparticle size and sialic acids in the distinct time-evolution profiles of nanoparticle uptake in hematopoietic progenitor cells and monocytes

BACKGROUND: Human hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) are important for cell therapy in cancer and tissue regeneration. In vitro studies have shown a transient association of 40 nm polystyrene nanoparticles (PS NPs) with these cells, which is of interest for intelligent design and application of NPs in HPC-based regenerative protocols. In this study, we aimed to investigate the involvement of nanoparticles’ size and membrane-attached glycan molecules in the interaction of HPCs with PS NPs, and compared it with monocytes. Human cord blood-derived HPCs and THP-1 cells were exposed to fluorescently labelled, carboxylated PS NPs of 40, 100 and 200 nm. Time-dependent nanoparticle membrane association and/or uptake was observed by measuring fluorescence intensity of exposed cells at short time intervals using flow cytometry. By pretreating the cells with neuraminidase, we studied the possible effect of membrane-associated sialic acids in the interaction with NPs. Confocal microscopy was used to visualize the cell-specific character of the NP association. RESULTS: Confocal images revealed that the majority of PS NPs was initially observed to be retained at the outer membrane of HPCs, while the same NPs showed immediate internalization by THP-1 monocytic cells. After prolonged exposure up to 4 h, PS NPs were also observed to enter the HPCs’ intracellular compartment. Cell-specific time courses of NP association with HPCs and THP-1 cells remained persistent after cells were enzymatically treated with neuraminidase, but significantly increased levels of NP association could be observed, suggesting a role for membrane-associated sialic acids in this process. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the terminal membrane-associated sialic acids contribute to the NP retention at the outer cell membrane of HPCs. This retention behavior is a unique characteristic of the HPCs and is independent of NP size. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12951-019-0495-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.