Abstract #1872

Preparation and MR Imaging of Giant Vesicles Containing Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide for Cell-Tracking MRI Probe

Taro Toyota¹,², Naoto Ohguri², Kouichi Maruyama³, Masanori Fujinami², Tsuneo Saga³, Ichio Aoki³

¹The University of Tokyo, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan; ²Chiba University, Inage, Chiba, Japan; ³National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Inage, Chiba, Japan

We describe biodegradable probes made of giant vesicles (GVs; closed lipid membranes with diameters >1 &[mu]m) that encapsulate SPIO for use as an MRI contrast agent. These SPIO-containing GVs (SPIO-GVs) exhibited excellent contrast enhancement in the single cell of medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) embryos immediately after their microinjection, and this enhancement disappeared when the GV membranes were destroyed.