Detection of gold nanorods uptake by macrophages using scattering analyses combined with diffusion reflection measurements as a potential tool for in vivo atherosclerosis tracking

• Published in: International journal of nanomedicine 2015-01, Vol.10 (default), p.4437-4446
• Main Authors: Ankri, Rinat, Melzer, Susanne, Tarnok, Attila, Fixler, Dror
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atherosclerosis; Cardiovascular disease; Coronary vessels; Diagnosis; Flow cytometry; Gold; Gold - chemistry; Gold - pharmacokinetics; gold nanoparticles; Humans; Macrophages; Macrophages - metabolism; Medical imaging; Nanoparticles; Nanotubes - chemistry; NMR; noninvasive detection; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Optical Imaging - methods; Original Research; Phantoms, Imaging; Physiological aspects; Plaque, Atherosclerotic; Properties; Spectrum analysis; Transmission electron microscopy; vulnerable plaques
• ISSN: 1178-2013; 1176-9114; 1178-2013
• DOI: 10.2147/IJN.S86615

In this study, we report a potential noninvasive technique for the detection of vulnerable plaques using scatter analyses with flow cytometry (FCM) method combined with the diffusion reflection (DR) method. The atherosclerotic plaques are commonly divided into two major categories: stable and vulnerable. The vulnerable plaques are rich with inflammatory cells, mostly macrophages (MΦ), which release enzymes that break down collagen in the cap. The detection method is based on uptake of gold nanorods (GNR) by MΦ. The GNR have unique optical properties that enable their detection using the FCM method, based on their scattering properties, and using the DR method, based on their unique absorption properties. This work demonstrates that after GNR labeling of MΦ, 1) the FCM scatter values increased up to 3.7-fold with arbitrary intensity values increasing from 1,110 to 4,100 and 2) the DR slope changed from an average slope of 0.196 (MΦ only) to an average slope of 0.827 (MΦ labeled with GNR) (P