Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles coated with galactose-carrying polymer for hepatocyte targeting.
Our goal is to develop the functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) demonstrating the capacities to be delivered in liver specifically and to be dispersed in physiological environment stably. For this purpose, SPIONs were coated with polyvinylbenzyl-O-beta-D-galactopyranosyl-D-gluconamide (PVLA) having galactose moieties to be recognized by asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGP-R) on hepatocytes. For use as a control, we also prepared SPIONs coordinated with 2-pyrrolidone. The sizes, size distribution, structure, and coating of the nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electrophoretic light scattering spectrophotometer (ELS), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), respectively. Intracellular uptake of the PVLA-coated SPIONs was visualized by confocal laser scanning microscopy, and their hepatocyte-specific delivery was also investigated through magnetic resonance (MR) images of rat liver. MRI experimental results indicated that the PVLA-coated SPIONs possess the more specific accumulation property in liver compared with control, which suggests their potential utility as liver-targeting MRI contrast agent.
Yoo
Mi Kyong
MK
School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-921, South Korea.
Kim
In Yong
IY
Kim
Eun Mi
EM
Jeong
Hwan-Jeong
HJ
Lee
Chang-Moon
CM
Jeong
Yong Yeon
YY
Akaike
Toshihiro
T
Cho
Chong Su
CS