Abstract
The conventional MRI contrast agents consisting of a chelate complex with a Gadolinium (Gd) ion, such as Magnevist® (Schering AG, Germany), enhance MRI signal by shorting the longitudinal relaxation time of protons of surrounding water molecules (1). These agents have been used as a routine clinical tool to reveal anatomical details in vivo and to detect lesions for diagnosis. For the future imaging of molecular/cellular diagnosis (2), innovative agents having much stronger proton relaxivity should be required. Since their discovery in 1985 (3), potential applications for fullerene and metallofullerene materials have been proposed because of their unique structural and electronic properties. Biomedical application, especially as MRI contrast, X-ray or radiopharmaceutical agents, should be a prominent field because fullerene cage can encage various metal ions, such as Ca, Sc, Sr, Y, La, Ce, Sm, Gd, Dy, Er, Yb, Ho, etc. (4). Here, we have investigated the possibility of application of water-soluble Gd metallofullerene for MRI contrast agents, and have evaluated them in vivo as well as in vitro.
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