ИСТИНА

Perfluorocarbon emulsions are very promising for various biomedical applications, including in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) taking into account that 19F nuclei are absent in most biological tissues, which eliminates the problem of interfering background signals. The incorporation of proton contrast agents (e.g. gadolinium chelates) on the surface of perfluorocarbon droplets permits to perform simultaneous 1H and 19F imaging thus improving significantly the quality of visualization. The present work is aimed at the preparation of stable perfluorocarbon emulsions with polymeric shell containing embedded gadolinium chelates. For these experiments, clinically approved gadolinium chelates (Gadovist, Magnevist, Omniscan) and clinically approved perfluorocarbon emulsion (Perftoran) were used. An efficient method of incorporation of gadolinium chelates into polymeric shell surrounding Perftoran emulsion droplets was proposed. It does not degrade the stability of the emulsion. The accumulation of gadolinium chelates on the shell of perfluorocarbon droplets gives high local concentration of contrast agent. The resulting emulsions have the same relaxivity as commercial gadolinium contrast agents like Omniscan, at the same time they give a strong 19F-NMR signal. Due to these properties, these emulsions are prospective for simultaneous 1H and 19F magnetic resonance imaging.