Taro Toyota1,
2, Naoto Ohguri2, Kouichi Maruyama3, Masanori
Fujinami2, Tsuneo Saga3, Ichio Aoki3
1The
University of Tokyo, Meguro, Tokyo, Japan; 2Chiba University,
Inage, Chiba, Japan; 3National Institute of Radiological Sciences,
Inage, Chiba, Japan
We describe biodegradable probes made of giant vesicles (GVs; closed lipid membranes with diameters >1 &[mu]m) that encapsulate SPIO for use as an MRI contrast agent. These SPIO-containing GVs (SPIO-GVs) exhibited excellent contrast enhancement in the single cell of medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) embryos immediately after their microinjection, and this enhancement disappeared when the GV membranes were destroyed.