Injectable and thermally contractible hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose/FeO for magnetic hyperthermia ablation of tumors.

The development of efficient strategies for the magnetic hyperthermia ablation of tumors remains challenging. To overcome the significant safety limitations, we developed a thermally contractible, injectable and biodegradable material for the minimally invasive and highly efficient magnetic hyperthermia ablation of tumors. This material was composed of hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and FeO. The thermal contractibility of HPMC/FeO was designed to avoid damaging the surrounding normal tissue upon heating, which was confirmed by visual inspection, ultrasound imaging and computed tomography (CT). The efficient injectability of HPMC/FeO was proven using a very small needle. The biosafety of HPMC/FeO was evaluated by MTT and biochemical assays as well as flow cytometry (FCM). All the aforementioned data demonstrated the safety of HPMC/FeO. The results of in vitro and ex vivo experiments showed that the temperature and necrotic volume of excised bovine liver were positively correlated with the HPMC/FeO weight, iron content and heating duration. The in vivo experimental results showed that the tumors could be completely ablated using 0.06 ml of HPMC/60%FeO after 180 s of induction heating. We believe that this novel, safe and biodegradable material will promote the rapid bench-to-bed translation of magnetic hyperthermia technology, and it is also expected to bring a new concept for the biomaterial research field.