PEGylated silica nanoparticles encapsulating multiple magnetite nanocrystals for high-performance microscopic magnetic resonance angiography

A novel magnetic resonance (MR) angiographic method, 3DΔR2-mMRA (three dimensional and ΔR2 based microscopy magnetic resonance angiography), is developed as a clinical diagnosis for depicting the function and structure of cerebral small vessels. However, the visibility of microvasculatures and the precision of cerebral blood volume calculation greatly rely on the transverse relaxivity and intravascular half-life of contrast agent, respectively. In this work, we report a blood pool contrast agent named H-Fe ₃O ₄@SiO ₂-PEG where multiple Fe ₃O ₄ nanocrystals are encapsulated in a thin silica shell to enhance the T ₂-relaxivity (r ₂ = 342.8 mM ^-1 s ^-1) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is employed to reduce opsonization and prolong circulation time of nanoparticles. Utilization of the newly developed H-Fe ₃O ₄@SiO ₂-PEG with a novel MR angiographic methodology, a high-resolution MR image of rat cerebral microvasculatures is successfully obtained.