Physicochemical characterization of ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (USPIO) for biomedical application as MRI contrast agents

Ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) particles are maghemite or magnetite nanoparticles currently used as contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging. The coatings surrounding the USPIO inorganic core play a major role in both the in vitro stability and, over all, USPIO's in vivo fa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of nanomedicine 2007-01, Vol.2 (4), p.609-622
Main Authors: Di Marco, Mariagrazia, Sadun, Claudia, Port, Marc, Guilbert, Irene, Couvreur, Patrick, Dubernet, Catherine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Contrast Media - chemistry
Dextrans
Ferrosoferric Oxide
Image Enhancement - methods
Iron - chemistry
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Magnetite Nanoparticles
Nanoparticles - chemistry
Nanoparticles - ultrastructure
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Oxides - chemistry
Particle Size
Review
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Summary:Ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) particles are maghemite or magnetite nanoparticles currently used as contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging. The coatings surrounding the USPIO inorganic core play a major role in both the in vitro stability and, over all, USPIO's in vivo fate. Different physicochemical properties such as final size, surface charge and coating density are key factors in this respect. Up to now no precise structure--activity relationship has been described to predict entirely the USPIOs stability, as well as their pharmacokinetics and their safety. This review is focused on both the classical and the latest available techniques allowing a better insight in the magnetic core structure and the organic surface of these particles. Concurrently, this work clearly shows the difficulty to obtain a complete physicochemical characterization of USPIOs particles owing to their small dimensions, reaching the analytical resolution limits of many commercial instruments. An extended characterization is therefore necessary to improve the understanding of the properties of USPIOs when dispersed in an aqueous environment and to set the specifications and limits for their conception.
ISSN:1176-9114
1178-2013