Nanomaterials 2015, 5(4), 1880-1890; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano5041880
T1-MRI Fluorescent Iron Oxide Nanoparticles by Microwave Assisted Synthesis
1
Spanish Cardiovascular Research Centre (CNIC) and Spanish Pulmonary Diseases Network (CIBERES) C/Melchor Fernández-Almagro 3, 28029 Madrid, Spain
2
Department of Physicochemistry II, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Yurii Gun'ko
Received: 7 October 2015 / Revised: 26 October 2015 / Accepted: 28 October 2015 / Published: 4 November 2015
Abstract
Iron oxide nanoparticles have long been studied as a T2 contrast agent in MRI due to their superparamagnetic behavior. T1-based positive contrast, being much more favorable for clinical application due to brighter and more accurate signaling is, however, still limited to gadolinium- or manganese-based imaging tools. Though being the only available commercial positive-contrast agents, they lack an efficient argument when it comes to biological toxicity and their circulatory half-life in blood. The need arises to design a biocompatible contrast agent with a scope for easy surface functionalization for long circulation in blood and/or targeted imaging. We hereby propose an extremely fast microwave synthesis for fluorescein-labeled extremely-small iron oxide nanoparticles (fdIONP), in a single step, as a viable tool for cell labeling and T1-MRI. We demonstrate the capabilities of such an approach through high-quality magnetic resonance angiographic images of mice. View Full-TextKeywords:
iron oxide nanoparticles; MRI; T1 contrast; microwave
▼
Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).
Related Articles
Article Metrics
Comments
[Return to top]
Nanomaterials
EISSN 2079-4991
Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland
RSS
E-Mail Table of Contents Alert