Sjoerd Hak1, Marte Thuen1, Peter
A. Jarzyna2, Willem J. M. Mulder2, Tore Syversen3,
Catharina De Lange Davies4, Olav Haraldseth1
1Department of Circulation
& Medical Imaging, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, Norway; 2Translational
& molecular imaging institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York,
United States; 3Department of Neuroscience, NTNU, Trondheim,
Norway, Norway; 4Department of Physics, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway,
Norway
The application of nanoparticle molecular imaging probes is still primarily preclinical. The signal attenuation after i.v. injection of such agents is very variable throughout groups of subjects with the same pathological condition. This study aims to understand the underlying mechanisms for this variable enhancement patterns post-injection of an alpha-v-beta-3-integrin targeted nanoemulsion in tumors grown in an MRI compatible dorsal window chamber in mice. This experimental set-up represents a powerful tool as it allows studying dynamics and sub-cellular distribution of the targeted agents with in vivo confocal microscopy and correlating their effects with the clinically relevant MRI signal attenuation.