Anna Klasson

Polyethylene glycol-covered ultra-small Gd2O3 nanoparticles for positive contrast at 1.5 T magnetic resonance clinical scanning

The size distribution and magnetic properties of ultra-small gadolinium oxide crystals (US-Gd2O3) were studied, and the impact of polyethylene glycol capping on the relaxivity constants (r1, r2) an ...

Synthesis and Characterization of PEGylated Gd2O3 Nanoparticles for MRI Contrast Enhancement

Recently, much attention has been given to the development of biofunctionalized nanoparticles with magnetic properties for novel biomedical imaging. Guided, smart, targeting nanoparticulate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents inducing high MRI signal will be valuable tools for future tissue specific imaging and investigation of molecular and cellular events. In this study, we report a new design of functionalized ultrasmall rare earth based nanoparticles to be used as a positive contrast agent in MRI. The relaxivity is compared to commercially available Gd based chelates. The synthesis, PEGylation, and dialysis of small (3-5 nm) gadolinium oxide (DEG-Gd(2)O(3)) nanoparticles are presented. The chemical and physical properties of the nanomaterial were investigated with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and dynamic light scattering. Neutrophil activation after exposure to this nanomaterial was studied by means of fluorescence microscopy. The proton relaxation times as a function of dialysis time and functionalization were measured at 1.5 T. A capping procedure introducing stabilizing properties was designed and verified, and the dialysis effects were evaluated. A higher proton relaxivity was obtained for as-synthesized diethylene glycol (DEG)-Gd(2)O(3) nanoparticles compared to commercial Gd-DTPA. A slight decrease of the relaxivity for as-synthesized DEG-Gd(2)O(3) nanoparticles as a function of dialysis time was observed. The results for functionalized nanoparticles showed a considerable relaxivity increase for particles dialyzed extensively with r(1) and r(2) values approximately 4 times the corresponding values for Gd-DTPA. The microscopy study showed that PEGylated nanoparticles do not activate neutrophils in contrast to uncapped Gd(2)O(3). Finally, the nanoparticles are equipped with Rhodamine to show that our PEGylated nanoparticles are available for further coupling chemistry, and thus prepared for targeting purposes. The long term goal is to design a powerful, directed contrast agent for MRI examinations with specific targeting possibilities and with properties inducing local contrast, that is, an extremely high MR signal at the cellular and molecular level.

Positive MRI Enhancement in THP-1 Cells with Gd2O3 Nanoparticles

There is a demand for more efficient and tissue-specific MRI contrast agents and recent developments involve the design of substances useful as molecular markers and magnetic tracers. In this study, nanoparticles of gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) have been investigated for cell labeling and capacity to generate a positive contrast. THP-1, a monocytic cell line that is phagocytic, was used and results were compared with relaxivity of particles in cell culture medium (RPMI 1640). The results showed that Gd2O3-labeled cells have shorter T1 and T2 relaxation times compared with untreated cells. A prominent difference in signal intensity was observed, indicating that Gd2O3 nanoparticles can be used as a positive contrast agent for cell labeling. The r1 for cell samples was 4.1 and 3.6 s(-1) mm(-1) for cell culture medium. The r2 was 17.4 and 12.9 s(-1) mm(-1), respectively. For r1, there was no significant difference in relaxivity between particles in cells compared to particles in cell culture medium, (p(r1) = 0.36), but r2 was significantly different for the two different series (p(r2) = 0.02). Viability results indicate that THP-1 cells endure treatment with Gd2O3 nanoparticles for an extended period of time and it is therefore concluded that results in this study are based on viable cells.