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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Dec 10.
Published in final edited form as: J Control Release. 2016 Sep 26;243:69–77. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2016.09.010

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Schematic illustration of in vitro breast cancer imaging: (1) Liquid perfluorocarbon phase-change contrast agents (PCCAs) added directly to culture medium for 1-hour incubation. (2) Folate-decorated PCCAs bind to folate receptors overexpressed on the surface of breast cancer cells. (3) PCCA nanodroplets internalize via folate receptor-mediated endocytosis. (4) Ultrasound pulse triggers phase-shift from liquid nanodroplets to gaseous microbubbles. (5) Intracellularly activated microbubbles imaged via confocal microscopy.