Large-Scale Synthesis of Uniform and Extremely Small-Sized Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for High-Resolution T1 Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast Agents

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• 作者：Byung Hyo Kim ; Nohyun Lee ; Hyoungsu Kim ; Kwangjin An ; Yong Il Park ; Yoonseok Choi ; Kwangsoo Shin ; Youjin Lee ; Soon Gu Kwon ; Hyon Bin Na ; Je-Geun Park ; Tae-Young Ahn ; Young-Woon Kim ; Woo Kyung Moon ; Seung Hong Choi ; Taeghwan Hyeon
• 刊名：Journal of the American Chemical Society
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：August 17, 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：133
• 期：32
• 页码：12624-12631
• 全文大小：1051K
• 年卷期：v.133,no.32(August 17, 2011)
• ISSN：1520-5126

文摘

Uniform and extremely small-sized iron oxide nanoparticles (ESIONs) of < 4 nm were synthesized via the thermal decomposition of iron鈥搊leate complex in the presence of oleyl alcohol. Oleyl alcohol lowered the reaction temperature by reducing iron鈥搊leate complex, resulting in the production of small-sized nanoparticles. XRD pattern of 3 nm-sized nanoparticles revealed maghemite crystal structure. These nanoparticles exhibited very low magnetization derived from the spin-canting effect. The hydrophobic nanoparticles can be easily transformed to water-dispersible and biocompatible nanoparticles by capping with the poly(ethylene glycol)-derivatized phosphine oxide (PO-PEG) ligands. Toxic response was not observed with Fe concentration up to 100 渭g/mL in MTT cell proliferation assay of POPEG-capped 3 nm-sized iron oxide nanoparticles. The 3 nm-sized nanoparticles exhibited a high r₁ relaxivity of 4.78 mM^鈥? s^鈥? and low r₂/r₁ ratio of 6.12, demonstrating that ESIONs can be efficient T₁ contrast agents. The high r₁ relaxivities of ESIONs can be attributed to the large number of surface Fe³⁺ ions with 5 unpaired valence electrons. In the in vivo T₁-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ESIONs showed longer circulation time than the clinically used gadolinium complex-based contrast agent, enabling high-resolution imaging. High-resolution blood pool MR imaging using ESIONs enabled clear observation of various blood vessels with sizes down to 0.2 mm. These results demonstrate the potential of ESIONs as T₁ MRI contrast agents in clinical settings.