Comparison of magnetite nanocrystal formed by biomineralization and chemosynthesis

Magnetite nanocrystal has been widely used in many fields. Recently, a new magnetite nanocrystal, called magnetosome, has been found in magnetotactic bacteria. In this article, we compared properties of magnetites prepared by co-precipitation with those of magnetosomes isolated from MSR-1 in detail, such as crystalline, morphology, crystal-size distributions, vitro cytotoxicity, and magnetic properties and quantified primary amino groups on the magnetosomes membrane surface by fluorescamine assay for the first time. From the results, it was clear that the magnetosomes might have potential in the biomedical applications in the future. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.