碳纳米管是一种具有独特结构和性能的一维纳米材料,已在生物医药和基因传输及生物医学成像等方面显示出重要的应用前景。本文介绍由钆及磁性氧化铁纳米颗粒修饰的新型碳纳米管造影剂的制备及应用,其中,钆螯合物、钆催化生长的碳纳米管及钆纳米管作为T1权重核磁共振造影剂,而铁催化生长的碳纳米管和超顺磁性氧化铁纳米颗粒修饰的碳纳米管作为T2权重核磁共振造影剂。这二种类型的造影剂均具有良好的生物相容性,在体外和体内MRI测试中显示出较高的成像对比度。
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one of the most promising 1D nanomaterials with unique morphology and properties, and hold great promise in biomedicine for drug/gene delivery and biomedical imaging. The use of CNTs as potential magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents has drawn much attention in the past decades. In this review, the progress in novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents composed of CNTs decorated with gadolinium or magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are summarized. The concerned MRI contrast agents are focused on two types of MRI contrast agents, i.e. Gadolinium chelate, Gd catalyzed CNTs and Gadonanotubes as T1-weighted MRI contrast agents, and Fe catalyzed CNTs and superparamagnetic iron oxide modiifed CNTs as T2-weighted MRI contrast agents. Both are hydrophilic, biocompatible, and show a high performance as a MRI contrast in in vitro and in vivo tests.