TREG coated Iron oxide nanoparticles as contrast agent for MRI in-vivo use

摘要

Super-paramagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) are of interest due to their great potential applications in diverse fields such as biomedicine. In this work we have prepared SPION nanoparticles using the polyol technique and characterized the magnetic properties of them for MRI in-vivo use. Nanoparticle preparation:All reagents were purchased from commercial sources (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, USA) Iron (III) acetylacetonate, [Fe(acac)3], was used as the iron oxide precursor and thermally decomposed at high temperatures in triethyleneglycol (TREG). Nano-sized magnetite particles were prepared by an adaptation of the method proposed by Wei Cai et al[1-3]. A healthy rabbit was scanned on a clinical 1.5 T Philips MR scanner. Images were taken in 2D mode with a mFFE sequence. Relaxation time T2 was obtained from the MR images using a Matlab algorithm where the signal intensity decay was calculated at each image and then adjusted to a mono-exponential curve. Images were obtained before contrast injection, 24 hours and 36 hours following SPIONs administration. Signal decay at different Echo times for the prepared magnetic SPIONs, before and after contrast injection was measured. It was visualized a concentration of the agent contrast in brain and liver and the results were compared with images obtained from histopathology.