Gold nanoparticles as high-resolution X-ray imaging contrast agents for the analysis of tumor-related micro-vasculature

Journal of Nanobiotechnology

Research

Kang-Chao Wu¹  Giorgio Margaritondo²  Hsiang-Hsin Chen³  Xiaoqing Cai³  Sheng-Feng Lai³  Chia-Chi Chien⁴  Yeukuang Hwu⁵  Yong Chu⁶  Cyril Petibois⁷ 

[1] Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery, Mackay Memorial Hospital Hsinchu Branch, 300, Hsinchu, Taiwan;Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland;Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Nankang, 115, Taipei, Taiwan;Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Nankang, 115, Taipei, Taiwan;Department of Engineering and System Science, National Tsing Hua University, 300, Hsinchu, Taiwan;Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Nankang, 115, Taipei, Taiwan;Department of Engineering and System Science, National Tsing Hua University, 300, Hsinchu, Taiwan;Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Center, National Cheng Kung University, 701, Tainan, Taiwan;National Synchrotron Light Source-II, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA;Université de Bordeaux, CNRS UMR 5248 - CBMN, F33405, Talence-Cedex, France;

关键词: Synchrotron;    X-rays;    Angiography;    Angiogenesis;    Contrast;    Au Nanoparticles;    Heparin;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1477-3155-10-10

 received in 2012-01-12, accepted in 2012-03-12,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAngiogenesis is widely investigated in conjunction with cancer development, in particular because of the possibility of early stage detection and of new therapeutic strategies. However, such studies are negatively affected by the limitations of imaging techniques in the detection of microscopic blood vessels (diameter 3-5 μm) grown under angiogenic stress. We report that synchrotron-based X-ray imaging techniques with very high spatial resolution can overcome this obstacle, provided that suitable contrast agents are used.ResultsWe tested different contrast agents based on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for the detection of cancer-related angiogenesis by synchrotron microradiology, microtomography and high resolution X-ray microscopy. Among them only bare-AuNPs in conjunction with heparin injection provided sufficient contrast to allow in vivo detection of small capillary species (the smallest measured lumen diameters were 3-5 μm). The detected vessel density was 3-7 times higher than with other nanoparticles. We also found that bare-AuNPs with heparin allows detecting symptoms of local extravascular nanoparticle diffusion in tumor areas where capillary leakage appeared.ConclusionsAlthough high-Z AuNPs are natural candidates as radiology contrast agents, their success is not guaranteed, in particular when targeting very small blood vessels in tumor-related angiography. We found that AuNPs injected with heparin produced the contrast level needed to reveal--for the first time by X-ray imaging--tumor microvessels with 3-5 μm diameter as well as extravascular diffusion due to basal membrane defenestration. These results open the interesting possibility of functional imaging of the tumor microvasculature, of its development and organization, as well as of the effects of anti-angiogenic drugs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Chien et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.