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Europium-phenolic network coated BaGdF5 nanocomposites for tri-modal computed tomography/magnetic resonance/luminescence imaging

  • Biomaterials Synthesis and Characterization
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Abstract

Multifunctional nanocomposites based on BaGdF5 nanoparticles (NPs) and metal phenolic network (MPN) have been engineered as novel contrast agents for potential applications in X-ray computed tomography, magnetic resonance and luminescence imaging. The BaGdF5@MPN nanocomposites were synthesized at room temperature by coating BaGdF5 NPs with europium-phenolic network, which was obtained by the coordination of europium (III) with tannic acid (TA). The in vitro cytotoxicity assays against HepG2 cells revealed that the BaGdF5@MPN nanocomposites presented better cytocompatibility and lower cytotoxity than pure BaGdF5 NPs. In addition, vivid red and green luminescence can be observed by confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) from the BaGdF5@MPN nanocomposites laden HepG2 cells under the excitation of UV (390 nm) and visible light (440 nm), respectively. The longitudinal relaxivity value (r1) of the nanocomposites was 2.457 mM−1s−1. Moreover, the nanocomoposites exhibited X-ray computed tomography (CT) and T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging capacities, and the intensities of the enhanced signals of in vitro CT and MR images were proportional to the concentrations of the nanocomposites. These results indicated that the as-prepared BaGdF5@MPN nanocomposites are promising contrast agents for CT/MR/luminescence imaging.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51573039, 81171386 and 31500773) and Science and Technology Key Projects of Shenzhen (No. JCYJ20150401150223643).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials; Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for the Green Preparation and Application of Functional Materials, Hubei University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430062, China

      Wei Zhu, Zhe Yang, Li Zhang, Tianmeng Yuan & Zushun Xu

    2. Department of Radiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430030, China

      Shuang Liang & Jing Wang

    3. Department of Radiology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430071, China

      Haibo Xu

    4. Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China

      Penghui Li

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    1. Wei Zhu
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    Correspondence to Zushun Xu, Haibo Xu or Penghui Li.

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    Wei Zhu and Shuang Liang have contributed equally to this work.

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    Zhu, W., Liang, S., Wang, J. et al. Europium-phenolic network coated BaGdF5 nanocomposites for tri-modal computed tomography/magnetic resonance/luminescence imaging. J Mater Sci: Mater Med 28, 74 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10856-017-5888-5

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