Contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are essential for evidential visualization of soft tissues pathologies. Contrast-enhanced MRI can be carried out with T- and T-weighted sequences that require as contrast agents paramagnetic and superparamagnetic materials, respectively. The T-weighted imaging is frequently preferred over T-, as it induces a bright contrast for sharper image analysis and allows more rapid image acquisition. Commonly used and FDA-approved T contrast agents, however, were shown to be associated with nephrogenic systematic fibrosis due to Gd release from the injected complexes. Here, ultrasmall iron oxide nanocrystals are produced by scalable flame aerosol technology and investigated as T MRI contrast agents by focusing on structure-function relationships and cytocompatibility. The optimized nanocrystals are shown to be a promising cytocompatible alternative to commercial Gd-complexes as they attain comparable relaxivities with no apparent cytotoxicity at clinically relevant concentrations tested against four different cell types (PC3, HepG2, THP-1, and red blood cells). By using SiO as a spacing material, the contrast enhancement could be finely tuned by decreasing the effective magnetic size of iron oxide resulting in significant T contrast enhancement due to reduced magnetic coupling.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.8b00244 | DOI Listing |
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