title: Photoacoustic signal amplification through plasmonic nanoparticle aggregation.
abstract: Photoacoustic imaging, using targeted plasmonic metallic nanoparticles, is a promising noninvasive molecular imaging method. Analysis of the photoacoustic signal generated by plasmonic metallic nanoparticles is complex because of the dependence upon physical properties of both the nanoparticle and the surrounding environment. We studied the effect of the aggregation of gold nanoparticles on the photoacoustic signal amplitude. We found that the photoacoustic signal from aggregated silica-coated gold nanoparticles is greatly enhanced in comparison to disperse silica-coated gold nanoparticles. Because cellular uptake and endocytosis of nanoparticles results in their aggregation, these results have important implications for the application of plasmonic metallic nanoparticles towards quantitative molecular imaging.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at Austin, Department of Biomedical Engineering, 1 University Station, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Carolyn L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Bayer
authors.forename: Seung Yun
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Nam
authors.forename: Yun-Sheng
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Stanislav Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Emelianov
mesh_terms: D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D061088:Photoacoustic Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
chemical_list: D006046:Gold