| Objective(s): Relevance between magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) relaxation rate and concentration of
magnetic nanoparticles determines the capability of a nanomaterial to provide MRI contrast. In the present
study, alginate was conjugated to gadolinium/graphene oxide nanocomposite to form gadolinium/graphene
oxide/alginate nanocomposite, aiming to investigate its effect on the relevance between MRI longitudinal
relaxation rate and paramagnetic gadolinium concentration.
Materials and Methods: The physicochemical properties of the nanocomposite and its effect on the cell
culture were investigated. Moreover, MRI longitudinal relaxation rates were determined based on the
corresponding exponential curves, and the graph of their relevance with gadolinium concentration was
plotted.
Results: The average thickness and sheet size of the nanocomposite were three and 100 nanometers,
respectively. The nanocomposite showed high cell viability, even at the relatively high concentration of 75
μg/ml. In addition, a linear correlation was observed between longitudinal relaxation rate and gadolinium
concentration.
Conclusion: According to the results, the linearity between gadolinium/graphene oxide/alginate
nanocomposite and gadolinium concentration, which revealed a high slope, confirmed the potential of the
nanocomposite to significantly improve the positive contrast of MR images. |