24 hour blood pool contrast agent
Superior X-ray Contrast Agent for Micro CT
Long imaging times and high contrast:
Ideal for imaging by microCT
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24 hour blood residence time!
- 200 mg Au/mL injected into mouse gives 1800 HU in blood vessels
- Low toxicity: LD50 >5.0 g Au/kg
- Low osmolality, even at high concentrations
- Low viscosity, similar to water; easy to inject, even into small vessels
- Can be concentrated to 600 mg Au/mL for super contrast
- Specifically loads angiogenic, cancerous tissue
20µm blood vessels in a live mouse around legs and pelvic region after IV injection of AuroVist™-15nm.
AuroVist™ 15 nm in action:
MicroCT of Live Mouse
In vivo Micro CT of mouse after AuroVist™ 15 nm injection
Images from recent experiments, right here at Nanoprobes Labs.
AuroVist™ 15 nm is a revolutionary tool in vascular imaging
Up to 3 times the contrast of iodine, without the vascular damage!
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Non-toxic
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Very high contrast in blood in heart, with very little accumulation in the liver
In the literature
An independent comparison study of micro CT contrast agents found AuroVist 15 nm to be superior to its competitors: eXIA160XL, ExiTron nano 12000 and an equivalent iodine-based contrast agent.
“AuroVist 15 nm provided the highest attenuation…
AuroVist 15 nm is best suited for anatomical investigation of the vascular network.”
Laura Nebuloni, Gisela A. Kuhn, Ralph Müller. A Comparative Analysis of Water-Soluble and Blood-Pool Contrast Agents for in vivo Vascular Imaging with Micro-CT. Academic Radiology 2013; 20:1247–1255.
In another study, AuroVist™ 15 nm was used to great advantage beyond iodine contrast agents:
“Gold nanoparticles (AuNp) are becoming one of the most promising contrast agents for CT due to their remarkable properties including
high x-ray absorption coefficient, tailored surface chemistry, and excellent biocompatibility.”
Darin P Clark, Ketan Ghaghada, Everett J Moding, David G Kirsch and Cristian T Badea. In vivo characterization of tumor vasculature using iodine and gold nanoparticles and dual energy micro-CT. 2013 Phys. Med. Biol. 58 1683
Dosage guidelines:
How many mice per 40 mg vial?
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- 2 mice per 40 mg vial (1 g/kg for a 20 g mouse) yields high contrast for most applications. Nebuloni et al. used this dose in their 2013 comparative study, finding an attenuation of 2.33/mm, much better than the other x-ray contrast agents at equivalent dose.
- For super-resolution, use the entire 40 mg vial per mouse (2 g/kg for a 20 g mouse). This is the dose used in Hainfeld et al.’s 2013 paper. We don’t see toxicity problems in our laboratory with even very high doses — we have so far only been limited by the total volume that a mouse can take.
- Remember that the blood half-life is 24 hours, so repeat imaging is possible even days after a single injection:
“Because of the slow clearance process of gold nanoparticles, an anatomical representation of blood vessels is still possible at 2 and 3 days after injection. This particular feature of AuroVist 15 nm might allow follow-up imaging without repeated injections or with lower doses of contrast material.” (Nebuloni, 2013)
In vivo micro-CT of mouse after injection with AuroVist 15 nm x-ray contrast agent.
It's not just for vascular imaging...
Designed for tumor visualization
AuroVist™ enhances radiotherapy!
As part of our ongoing cancer research here at Nanoprobes, AuroVist™ was engineered to specifically load into tumors from the bloodstream. These nanoparticles take advantage of the unique features of cancerous vasculature, concentrating and collecting in tumors anywhere in the body after a simple i.v. injection.
In addition, the gold nanoparticles are excellent at absorbing radiation– turning this simple contrast agent into a powerful magnifier of radiotherapy.
The quest continues… Our newest version, VivoVist™ provides all of these fantastic features, but with an inexpensive core that is equally non-toxic. The ultimate xray contrast agent for animal studies of vasculature and cancer research!
Check out our newest contrast agent for micro CT:
The ultimate xray contrast agent
Highest resolution • Highest contrast • Lowest price
- Non-toxic, 24 hour blood pool contrast agent
- Low-cost materials – great for animal studies
- Specifically loads tumors after i.v. injection
- High-density, radioabsorptive material
Head of a live mouse imaged by microCT following intravenous VivoVist™ administration. Image kindly provided by Dr. Sean Marrelli, Department of Neurology at the McGovern Medical School at UT Health (Houston, TX).