Characterization of heating, movement and visualization of magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Magnetic nanoparticles can be used for a variety of biomedical applications. They can be used in the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents, as contrast agents in MR imaging and in the hyperthermic treatment of cancers. Previous studies using these particles have not dealt with a quantitative characterization of movement and heating of these particles in biological environments. In the present study, the thermal characteristics of magnetic nanoparticles in water and collagen were investigated. In other studies, the movement of these particles in collagen in a known magnetic field was studied; infra-red (IR) imaging was used to visualize these particles in vitro. The results show that the amount of temperature rise increases with the concentration of nanoparticles regardless of the microenvironments. However, the amount of heating in collagen is significantly less than water at the same nanoparticle concentration. IR imaging can be used to visualize these particles in vitro over a wide range of concentrations of these nanoparticles.