Encapsulation of Gadolinium Oxide Nanoparticle (Gd2O3) Contrasting Agents in PAMAM Dendrimer Templates for Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Vivo.

There has been growing interest in the research of nanomaterials for biomedical applications in recent decades. Herein, a simple approach to synthesize the G4.5-Gd2O3-poly(ethylene glycol) (G4.5-Gd2O3-PEG) nanoparticles (NPs) that demonstrate potential as dual (T1 and T2) contrasting agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been reported in this study. Compared to the clinically popular Gd-DTPA contrasting agents, G4.5-Gd2O3-PEG NPs exhibited a longer longitudinal relaxation time (T1) and better biocompatibility when incubated with macrophage cell line RAW264.7 in vitro. Furthermore, the longitudinal relaxivity (r1) of G4.5-Gd2O3-PEG NPs was 53.9 s-1 mM-1 at 7T, which is equivalent to 4.8 times greater than to the Gd-DTPA contrasting agents. An in vivo T1-weighted MRI results revealed that G4.5-Gd2O3-PEG NPs significantly enhanced signals in the intestines, kidney, liver, bladder, and spleen. In addition, the T2-weighted MRI results revealed darker contrast in the kidney, which proves that G4.5-Gd2O3-PEG NPs can be exploited as T1 and T2 contrasting agents. In summary, these findings suggest that the G4.5-Gd2O3-PEG NPs synthesized by an alternative approach can be used as dual MRI contrasting agents.