Carboxymethyl-chitosan/Poly(amidoamine) Dendrimer Nanoparticles in Central Nervous System Regenerative Medicine: Effects on Neurons/Glial Cells Viability and Internalization efficiency

The applicability of CMCht/PAMAM dendrimer nanoparticles for CNS applications was investigated. AFM and TEM observations revealed that the nanoparticles possessed a nano- sphere-like shape with a size from 22.0 to 30.7nm. The nanoparticles could be bound to fluorescent-probe FITC for tracing purposes. Post-natal hippocampal neurons and cortical glial cells were both able to internalize the FITC-labeled

CMCht/PAMAM dendrimer nanoparticles with high efficiency. The percentage of positive cells internalizing the nanoparticles varied, reaching a peak after 48h of incubation. Further exper- iments for periods up to 7d revealed that the periodical addition of FITC-labelled CMCht/ PAMAM dendrimer nanoparticles was needed to maintain the overall percentage of cells interna- lizing them. Finally, it was also observed that cell viability was not significantly affected by the incubation of dendrimer nanoparticles.