Fig 3.

a) In vivo and ex vivo imaging results. RGD-FL-SiO₂ and NH₂-FL-SiO₂ nanoparticles were i.v. injected into U87MG tumor-bearing mice. The images were acquired at 1, 4 and 24 h post injection. After 24 h imaging, tumors and major organs were dissected and laid on a sheet of black paper for ex vivo imaging. The tissues were arranged by the following order: 1) tumor; 2) heart; 3) liver; 4) spleen; 5) lung; 6) kidneys; 7) intestine; 8) muscle; 9) brain. b) Microscopic fluorescence imaging studies with tumor sections that were taken from U87MG tumor-bearing mice injected with either Dox-RGD-FL-SiO₂ or Dox-NH₂-FL-SiO₂ nanoparticles. Scale bars: 50 µm.