Delivered by Ingenta to: University of South Carolina IP: 5.189.200.183 On: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 11:54:32 Copyright: American Scientific Publishers Copyright © 2016 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Article Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology Vol. 12, 1501–1509, 2016 www.aspbs.com/jbn An Investigation of the Usability of Solid Lipid Nanoparticles Radiolabelled with Tc-99m as Imaging Agents in Liver-Spleen Scintigraphy Hayrettin Eroglu 1 ∗ and Ayse Yenilmez 2 1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ataturk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey 2 Department of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, Ataturk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey In this work, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) were prepared by microemulsion and ultrasonication methods in the first stage of the production process of 99m Tc–SLNs, which is considered to be an alternative radiopharmaceutical for the liver- spleen scintigraphy within the nuclear medicine. The laser diffraction (LD) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that these particles were at nano scale and had  ′ polymorph structure, respectively. It was observed that there was no interaction between the solid lipid and the surfactant molecules by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images were taken and seen that the SLNs were spherical and at nano scale. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for stability confirmed that they were stable for temperature variations. In the second stage of the study, the SLNs were successfully labeled with 99m Tc. The radiolabeling efficiency was found to be greater than %95 and in vivo studies were performed on experimental rabbits using scintigraphic methods. When the obtained images were examined, the uptake was observed in the heart, the lungs, the liver, and the spleen. It was concluded that SLNs labeled with 99m Tc could be a selective imaging agent. It was asserted to be a new radiopharmaceutical, especially as an alternative to the 99m Tc-labeled compounds used in the liver and spleen imaging in colloid scintigraphy. KEYWORDS: Solid Lipid Nanoparticle, Tc-99m, Radiolabeled, Imaging Agents, Liver, Spleen, Rabbit. INTRODUCTION Nanoparticle drug delivery systems have been developed utilizing nanotechnology to eliminate the disadvantages observed in traditional treatment, to improve the effi- cacy of biopharmaceuticals (which have poor stability and poor solubility, short biological half-life and significant side effects), to reduce the unwanted side effects and to increase the bioavailability and accordingly improve the therapeutic efficacy, and to ensure effective and safe treatment. 1–3 Nanoparticles are solid colloidal particles capable of releasing the active ingredient that is dissolved, entrapped, or adsorbed in a controlled fashion. By masking specific properties of active agents they increase the stability of these materials and owing to their nanometer size, they ∗ Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: heroglu@atauni.edu.tr Received: 4 January 2016 Revised/Accepted: 17 April 2016 allow the active agents to pass the membrane barriers. 1 2 4 The main objective of developing these particles as the car- rier system is to ensure the controlled release of the drug by means of controlling the particle size, surface proper- ties and release kinetics of pharmaceutically active agents, to help collect these agents in the desired region and hence to obtain the optimum dose and the ratio therapeutically. Because of these advantages, using nanoparticles as a car- rier system is of paramount importance. 1 5 6 Solid lipid nanoparticles, which emerged as an alter- native carrier system to the existing colloidal carrier sys- tems (emulsions, liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles) in 1990s, exhibit very high biocompatibility and biodegrad- ability and correspondingly low systemic toxicity and low cytotoxicity because they consist of physiological lipids. Main advantages of solid lipid nanoparticles are as fol- lows: They have an easy preparation process and physical stability, they do not contain organic solvent residues, they are capable of loading lipophilic and hydrophilic drugs, it is possible to manufacture them on a large scale, they J. Biomed. Nanotechnol. 2016, Vol. 12, No. 7 1550-7033/2016/12/1501/009 doi:10.1166/jbn.2016.2286 1501