1 © 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim wileyonlinelibrary.com
Engineered Nanomaterials
Quantifying and Imaging Engineered Nanomaterials
In Vivo: Challenges and Techniques
Xiao He,* Yuhui Ma, Meng Li, Peng Zhang, Yuanyuan Li, and Zhiyong Zhang*
Quantifying and imaging the engineered nanomaterials
(ENMs) in vivo can provide information on the
bio-distribution and fate of ENMs in living systems.
A necessary amount of in vivo quantitative data is
indispensable to verify the extrapolation from in vitro
tests, to modify the predictive models of ENM exposure,
and to underpin the risk management strategy for ENMs.
However, it remains a challenge to quantitatively assess the
bio-distribution of ENMs under realistic exposure, their
long-term deposition (especially in non-targeted tissues),
their passage across the natural barriers, and the impacts
of nano–bio interactions on their in vivo behaviors.
Some commonly used techniques for in vivo ENM
quantification, such as electron microscopy, fluorescence-
based detection, atomic spectroscopy, radiotracing, and
techniques basing on synchrotron radiation are reviewed,
and their technical characteristics, the state of the art,
limitations, and future prospects are addressed.
Introduction 1. ............................................... 2
Abbreviations Used 2. ................................... 2
Challenges in In Vivo Quantification 3.
of ENMs ...................................................... 2
Techniques for In Vivo Quantification 4.
of ENMs ...................................................... 3
Summary and Outlook 5. ................................8
From the Contents
small 2012,
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201201502