Effects of magnetite nanoparticles and static magnetic field on neural differentiation of pluripotent stem cells

Neural proliferation and differentiation fates of pluripotent stem cells are influenced by external natural forces. Despite the presence of biogenic magnetite nanoparticles in the central nervous system and constant exposure to Earth's magnetic fields and other sources, there has been scant knowledge regarding the role of electromagnetic stimuli in neurogenesis. Moreover, the emerging application of electrical and magnetic stimulation to treat neurological disorders emphasizes the relevance of understanding the impact and mechanisms behind these stimuli. Here, the effects of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) contained in polymeric coatings and the static external magnetic field (EMF, 0.4 Tesla) were investigated on neural induction of murine embryonic stem cells (mESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into induced dopaminergic neurons (iDA). Overall design: In this study we investigate how external static magnetic field (EMF 0,4 Telsa) influences the neural dopaminergic differentiation of the Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) reprogrammed from three different human control samples (healthy individuals – above 59 years without neural diseases). Three iPSC samples (Tofoli et al., 2019a) were differentiated into midbrain dopaminergic neurons (or iDA = induced dopaminergic neurons) following Kriks et al., 2011 protocol (as described in Tofoli et al., 2019b) until 35 days. Same samples also were differentiated into iDA under EMF (0,4 Telsa) since day 0 of the dopaminergic differentiation. At day 35, iDA samples were collected into Trizol to RNA extraction. Functional assays (Reactive oxygen species production, Acid vesicles analyses, Membrane potential and free intracellular calcium concentration changes) also performed to compare dopaminergic differentiation with and without EMF stimulus.