title: Biodistribution and imaging of fluorescently-tagged iron oxide nanoparticles in a breast cancer mouse model.
abstract: Iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) hyperthermia is an emerging treatment that shows great potential as a cancer therapy both alone and in synergy with conventional modalities. Pre-clinical studies are attempting to elucidate the mechanisms of action and distributions of IONP in variousin vitroandin vivomodels, however these studies would greatly benefit from real-time imaging of IONP locations both in cellular and in mammalian systems. To this end, fluorescently-tagged IONP (fIONP) have been employed for real time tracking and co-registration of IONP with iron content. Starch-coated IONP were fluorescently-tagged, purified and analyzed for fluorescent signal at various concentrations. fIONP were incubated with MTGB cells for varying times and cellular uptake analyzed using confocal microscopy, flow cytometry and inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). fIONP were also injected into a bilateral mouse tumor model for radiation modification of tumor tissue and enhanced fIONP deposition assessed using a Xenogen IVIS fluorescent imager. Results demonstrated that fIONP concentrationsin vitrocorrelated with ICPMS iron readings. fIONP could be trackedin vitroas well as in tissue samples from anin vivomodel. Future work will employ whole animal fluorescent imaging to track the biodistribution of fIONP over time.
authors.affiliation: Thayer School of Engineering, 14 Engineering Drive, Hanover, NH, USA 03755-8000.
authors.forename: Jennifer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Tate
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth Medical School, 1 Rope Ferry Road, Hanover, NH USA 03755-1404.
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Savellano
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth Medical School, 1 Rope Ferry Road, Hanover, NH USA 03755-1404.
authors.forename: P Jack
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Hoopes
keywords: biodistribution; fluorescence; hyperthermia; in vivo; iron oxide; magnetic; magnetite; nanoparticle