An Investigation of the Usability of Solid Lipid Nanoparticles Radiolabelled with Tc-99m as Imaging Agents in Liver-Spleen Scintigraphy.

Abstract

In this work, solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) were prepared by microemulsion and ultrasonication methods in the first stage of the production process of 99mTc–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 β' 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 99mTc. 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 99mTc could be a selective imaging agent. It was asserted to be a new radiopharmaceutical, especially as an alternative to the 99mTc-labeled compounds used in the liver and spleen imaging in colloid scintigraphy.