Simone S. Williams1,2, Tricia L. Lobo3,
Erik M. Shapiro1,3
1Department of Biomedical
Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States; 2Xavier
University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA, United States; 3Department
of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT,
United States
We investigated the use of gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) based contrast agents for MRI-based cell tracking. Gd2O3 nanocrystals were synthesized and encapsulated within PLGA to form 150 nm nanoparticles. While PLGA encapsulated Gd2O3 nanoparticles had good r1 molar relaxivity, 1.9 mM-1sec-1, Gd2O3 nanocrystals rapidly dissolved to form gadolinium ions in solutions mimicking lysosomal chemical environment within cells. Thus, while Gd2O3 does have favorable MRI properties, the rapid dissolution of Gd2O3 to form gadolinium ions is dangerous and needs to be accounted for when using Gd2O3 as an MRI contrast agent.