Issue 6, 2015

Self-assembled gold coating enhances X-ray imaging of alginate microcapsules

Abstract

Therapeutic biomolecules produced from cells encapsulated within alginate microcapsules (MCs) offer a potential treatment for a number of diseases. However the fate of such MCs once implanted into the body is difficult to establish. Labelling the MCs with medical imaging contrast agents may aid their detection and give researchers the ability to track them over time thus aiding the development of such cellular therapies. Here we report the preparation of MCs with a self-assembled gold nanoparticle (AuNPs) coating which results in distinctive contrast and enables them to be readily identified using a conventional small animal X-ray micro-CT scanner. Cationic Reversible Addition-Fragmentation chain Transfer (RAFT) homopolymer modified AuNPs (PAuNPs) were coated onto the surface of negatively charged alginate MCs resulting in hybrids which possessed low cytotoxicity and high mechanical stability in vitro. As a result of their high localized Au concentration, the hybrid MCs exhibited a distinctive bright circular ring even with a low X-ray dose and rapid scanning in post-mortem imaging experiments facilitating their positive identification and potentially enabling them to be used for in vivo tracking experiments over multiple time-points.

Graphical abstract: Self-assembled gold coating enhances X-ray imaging of alginate microcapsules

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Nov 2014
Accepted
22 Dec 2014
First published
08 Jan 2015

Nanoscale, 2015,7, 2480-2488

Author version available

Self-assembled gold coating enhances X-ray imaging of alginate microcapsules

F. Qie, A. Astolfo, M. Wickramaratna, M. Behe, M. D. M. Evans, T. C. Hughes, X. Hao and T. Tan, Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 2480 DOI: 10.1039/C4NR06692H

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