Circulation and distribution of gold nanoparticles and induced alterations of tissue morphology at intravenous particle delivery

Kinetics, biodistribution, and histological studies were performed to evaluate the particle-size effects on the distribution of 15 nm and 50 nm PEG-coated colloidal gold (CG) particles and 160 nm silica/gold nanoshells (NSs) in rats and rabbits. The above nanoparticles (NPs) were used as a model because of their importance for current biomedical applications such as photothermal therapy, optical coherence tomography, and resonance-scattering imaging. The dynamics of NPs circulation in vivo was evaluated after intravenous administration of 15 nm CG NPs to rabbit, and the maximal concentrations of gold were observed 15-30 min after injection. Rats were injected in the tail vein with PEG-coated NPs (about 0.3 mg Au/kg rats). 24 h after injection, the accumulation of gold in different organs and blood was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. In accordance with the published reports, we observed 15 nm particles in all organs with rather smooth distribution over liver, spleen and blood. By contrast, the larger NSs were accumulated mainly in the liver and spleen. For rabbits, the biodistribution was similar (72 h after intravenous injection). We report also preliminary data on the light microscopy and TEM histological examination that allows evaluation of the changes in biotissues after gold NPs treatment.