Biopolymer-based nanospheres have great potential in the field of drug delivery and tissue regenerative medicine. In this work, we present a flexible way to conjugate a magnetic hyaluronic acid (HA) nanosphere system that are capable of vectoring delivery of adipogenic factor, e.g. dexamethasone, for adipose tissue engineering. Conjugation of nanospheres was established by aqueous Diets Alder chemistry between furan and maleimide of HA derivatives. Simultaneously, a furan functionalized dexamethasone peptide, GQPGK, was synthesized and covalently immobilized into the nanospheres. The magnetic HA nanospheres were fabricated by encapsulating super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, which exhibited quick magnetic sensitivity. The aqueous Diets Alder chemistry made nanospheres high binding efficiency of dexamethasone, and the vectoring delivery of dexamethasone could be easily controlled by a external magnetic field. The potential application of the magnetic HA nanospheres on vectoring delivery of adipogenic factor was confirmed by co-culture of human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs). In vitro cytotoxicity tests demonstrated that incorporation of dexamethasone into magnetic HA nanospheres showed high efficiency to promote ASCs viabilities, in particular under a magnetic field, which suggested a promising future for adipose regeneration applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.