Influences of superparamagnetic Fe3O4@Ag core-shell nanoparticles on the growth inhibition of Huh-7 cells

Abstract

Fe3O4@Ag core-shell nanoparticles were successfully formulated by the combination of phyto and hydrothermal synthesis in which the silver nanoparticles are decorated on the magnetite core particle. Morphological analysis reveals that the size of Fe3O4@Ag core-shell nanoparticles falls around 50 nm with a spherical structure. At room temperature, these particles exhibit superparamagnetic behavior and their magnetization reduction for low temperature was evident from the ZFC/FC analysis and blocking temperature was measured to be around 300 K. The in vitro cytotoxicity of various concentrations of the Fe3O4@Ag core-shell nanoparticles were studied using MTT assay on the hepatocellular carcinoma liver tumour Huh-7 cells. The results illustrated that the cell viability of Huh-7 cells were greatly affected by the synthesized Fe3O4@Ag core-shell nanoparticles in a dose-dependent manner.