title: Giant vesicles containing superparamagnetic iron oxide as biodegradable cell-tracking MRI probes.
abstract: A major breakthrough in in vivo cellular imaging has been the clinical/preclinical use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with contrast agent. Superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) is a promising candidate for the development of smart MRI probes for cell-tracking. In the present study, we describe biodegradable probes made of giant vesicles (GVs; closed lipid membranes with diameters >1 μm) that encapsulate SPIO for use as an MRI contrast agent. These SPIO-containing GVs (SPIO-GVs) exhibited excellent contrast enhancement in the single cell of medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) embryos immediately after their microinjection, and this enhancement disappeared when the GV membranes were destroyed. Our results demonstrate that SPIO-GVs are useful MRI probes for single cell-tracking that have minimum cytotoxicity and will greatly improve clinical/preclinical in vivo cellular imaging techniques.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi, Inage, Chiba, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.
authors.forename: Taro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Toyota
authors.forename: Naoto
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohguri
authors.forename: Kouichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maruyama
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fujinami
authors.forename: Tsuneo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saga
authors.forename: Ichio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Aoki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058948:Cell Tracking / Q000379:methods*; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000166:cytology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005290:Ferric Compounds / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000032:analysis; D008081:Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009990:Oryzias / Q000196:embryology*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D005290:Ferric Compounds; D008081:Liposomes; C000499:ferric oxide