. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Apr 1.

Published in final edited form as: Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2016 Jan 27;99(Pt A):2–11. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2016.01.009

Table 3.

Molecular imaging with EMS vehicles

Imaging modality	Carrier and contrast agent	Disease/animal model	Imaging enhancement effects	References
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)	Gadolinium (Gd)-PtdSer-cholesterol-9-carboxynonanoate [9-CCN] liposomes (OxPL vesicles)	Atherosclerosis: Watanabe hereditary hyperlipidemic (WHHL) rabbit model of atherosclerosis	T1 weighted MRI: high T1 contrast in the vessel wall upto 24 h.	[62]
	Gd-PtdSer liposomes	Atherosclerosis: ApoE^−/− mice	T1 weighted MRI: rapid and significant enhancement in the aortic wall upto 4 h.	[134]
	Gd-PtdSer liposomes	RAW 264.7 macrophages	Cellular relaxivity (r1 = 0.8 ± 0.4 mM⁻¹.s⁻¹) was lower than in (r1 = 3.0 ± 0.3 mM⁻¹.s⁻¹) solution. Compartmentalization of PtdSer liposomes results in lower r1.	[60]
	PtdSer, Ω-carboxynonanoyl-cholesteryl ester, Gd lipid and phospholipid-PEG conjugated anti-Mrp polyclonal antibody (aMrp-NP) liposomes	Atherosclerosis: ApoE^−/− mice	T1 weighted MRI: enhanced contrast to noise ratio (22 fold higher) in ApoE^−/− abdominal aorta.	[63]
CT imaging	Iodixanol-NIR800-rhodamine-PtdSer-Liposomes	Atherosclerosis: WHHL and balloon-denuded cholesterol-fed New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits	Smaller PtdSer liposomes (d = 112 ± 4 nm) were more effective in CT signal enhancement in aorta in both animal models.	[64]
Fluorescence imaging	Quantum dot-PtdSer -PEG micelles	J774A.1 macrophages	50:50 M ratio of PtdSer and PEG evaded uptake by macrophages, varying PtdSer and PEG can differentially image macrophage uptake	[135]
Ultrasound imaging	PtdSer micro-bubbles	Ischemia: renal ischemia–reperfusion injury C57BL/6 mice.	Signal was 2-fold higher for PtdSer -containing micro-bubbles than for standard lipid micro-bubbles.	[66]
	Myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) imaging/PtdSer micro-bubbles	Myocardial Ischemia: dogs-ultrasound imaging of the left anterior descending (LAD) and left circumflex (LCx) arteries	Spatial extent of inflammation by MCE similar to radionuclide imaging by ^99mTc-RP517.	[67]
	Perfusion imaging/PtdSer-integrin-VCAM-1 micro-bubbles	Ischemia: models of vasculogenesis (subcutaneous matrigel) or hind-limb ischemia produced by arterial occlusion in C57BL/6 and MCP-1^−/− mice	CEU imaging of matrigel showed the formation of channels with flow at day3. Selective signal enhancement in ischemic limb with PtdSer, integrin, VCAM-1 targeted micro-bubbles.	[68]
SPECT imaging	¹¹¹In labeled- PtdSer liposomes	Atherosclerosis: ApoE^−/− mice	En face autoradiography revealed successful visualization of plaques by ¹¹¹In labeled- PtdSer liposomes	[65]