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Red blood cells as carriers in magnetic particle imaging

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Published/Copyright: July 10, 2013

Abstract

Red blood cells (RBCs) represent intravascular carriers for drugs, biologics, and other therapeutic agents, characterized by their unique longevity in the bloodstream, availability, considerable surface and volume, high biocompatibility, and natural mechanisms for safe elimination. Recently, the potential of RBCs loaded with superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles as a tracer material for magnetic particle imaging (MPI) to realize a blood-pool tracer agent with longer blood retention time for imaging of the circulatory system, has been investigated. MPI is a new tomographic imaging approach that can quantitatively map magnetic nanoparticle distributions in vivo. However, SPIO contrast agents, such as Resovist, have a short blood half-life due to rapid uptake by the reticuloendothelial system, which limits the applicability of such compounds for certain applications such as long-term monitoring. Here, we report the in vitro magnetic characterization study of human SPIO-loaded RBCs and the first MPI results obtained after intravenous injection of murine SPIO-loaded RBCs in an in vivo MPI experiment.


Corresponding author: Prof. Mauro Magnani, Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Via Saffi 2, 61029 Urbino, Italy, Phone: +39 0722 305211, Fax: +39 0722 305324, E-mail:

We acknowledge support in animal provision and handling by Dr. Tiemann (University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf) and funding by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the grant numbers FKZ 13N9079 and 13N11086 and by FIRB (RBFR1299K0_003) project.

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Received: 2012-10-19
Accepted: 2013-6-10
Published Online: 2013-07-10
Published in Print: 2013-12-01

©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston

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