Issue 6, 2016

Geometrically confined ultrasmall gadolinium oxide nanoparticles boost the T1 contrast ability

Abstract

High-performance magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents and novel contrast enhancement strategies are urgently needed for sensitive and accurate diagnosis. Here we report a strategy to construct a new T1 contrast agent based on the Solomon–Bloembergen–Morgan (SBM) theory. We loaded the ultrasmall gadolinium oxide nanoparticles into worm-like interior channels of mesoporous silica nanospheres (Gd2O3@MSN nanocomposites). This unique structure endows the nanocomposites with geometrical confinement, high molecular tumbling time, and a large coordinated number of water molecules, which results in a significant enhancement of the T1 contrast with longitudinal proton relaxivity (r1) as high as 45.08 mM−1 s−1. Such a high r1 value of Gd2O3@MSN, compared to those of ultrasmall Gd2O3 nanoparticles and gadolinium-based clinical contrast agents, is mainly attributed to the strong geometrical confinement effect. This strategy provides new guidance for developing various high-performance T1 contrast agents for sensitive imaging and disease diagnosis.

Graphical abstract: Geometrically confined ultrasmall gadolinium oxide nanoparticles boost the T1 contrast ability

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Nov 2015
Accepted
14 Jan 2016
First published
15 Jan 2016

Nanoscale, 2016,8, 3768-3774

Geometrically confined ultrasmall gadolinium oxide nanoparticles boost the T1 contrast ability

K. Ni, Z. Zhao, Z. Zhang, Z. Zhou, L. Yang, L. Wang, H. Ai and J. Gao, Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 3768 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR08402D

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