In vivo quantitative evaluation of gold nanocages' kinetics in sentinel lymph nodes by photoacoustic tomography

As a new class of sentinel lymph node (SLN) tracers for photoacoustic (PA) imaging, Au nanocages offer the advantages of noninvasiveness, strong optical absorption in the near-infrared region (for deep penetration), and accumulation in higher concentrations than the initial injected solution. By monitoring the amplitude changes of PA signals in an animal model, we quantified the accumulations of nanocages in SLNs over time. Based on this method, we quantitatively evaluated the kinetics of gold nanocages in SLN in terms of concentration, size, and surface modification. We could detect the SLN at an Au nanocage injection concentration of 50 pM and a dose of 100 μL in vivo. This concentration is about 40 times less than the previously reported value. We also investigated the influence of nanocages' size (50 nm and 30 nm in edge length), and the effects of surface modification (with positive, or neutral, or negative surface charges). The results are helpful to develop this AuNC-based PA imaging system for noninvasive lymph node mapping, providing valuable information about metastatic cancer staging.