Polyethylene glycol-modified dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles enhance CT imaging of blood pool in atherosclerotic mice

Kaichuang Ye; Jinbao Qin; Zhiyou Peng; Xinrui Yang; Lijia Huang; Fukang Yuan; Chen Peng; Mier Jiang; Xinwu Lu

doi:10.1186/1556-276X-9-529

Polyethylene glycol-modified dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles enhance CT imaging of blood pool in atherosclerotic mice

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2014 Sep 26;9(1):529. doi: 10.1186/1556-276X-9-529. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Kaichuang Ye¹, Jinbao Qin¹, Zhiyou Peng¹, Xinrui Yang¹, Lijia Huang¹, Fukang Yuan¹, Chen Peng², Mier Jiang³, Xinwu Lu³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Vascular Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200011, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Radiology, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200072, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Vascular Surgery, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Medicine, Shanghai 200011, People's Republic of China ; Vascular Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200011, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

We report a new use of dendrimer-entrapped gold nanoparticles (Au DENPs) modified by polyethylene glycol (PEG) with good biocompatibility for in vitro and in vivo imaging of atherosclerotic mice by computed tomography (CT). In this study, Au DENPs were synthesized using poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimers of generation 5 (G5.NH2) modified by PEG monomethyl ether (G5.NH2-mPEG20) as templates. In vitro cytotoxicity and flow cytometry assays show that the formed PEGylated Au DENPs have good biocompatibility and are non-cytotoxic at the Au concentration up to 300 μM. Silver staining and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) further confirm that the Au DENPs are able to be uptaken by macrophages and are located dominantly in the lysosomes of the cells. Importantly, the formed PEGylated Au DENPs are able to be used for CT imaging of murine macrophages in vitro and macrophages in atherosclerotic mice in vivo using apolipoprotein-E-gene-deficient mice as a model. These findings suggest that the formed PEGylated Au DENPs are a promising contrast agent for CT imaging of atherosclerosis.

Keywords: Atherosclerosis; Computed tomography imaging; Dendrimers; Gold nanoparticles; Macrophages.