Heparin-coated iron oxide nanoparticles: application as a liver contrast agent, toxicity and pharmacokinetics

The prepared heparin-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (Hep-IONPs) contrasted cholangioma tumors in the liver in <i>T</i>₂ MRI. The NPs were not toxic to rats and rabbits after 14 days of consecutive IV injections as observed from the monitoring of the body weight and biochemical and hematological parameters. No embryotoxic or immunotoxic side effects of the material were detected. However, we observed mutagenicity of iron oxide NPs in the Ames test and micronucleus assay. The pharmacokinetic studies showed that Hep-IONPs circulated in the blood for 14 days after IV injection. The liver iron level reached its maximum after 6 hours and slowly decreased within 30 days. Altogether, these results suggest that the synthesized Hep-IONPs are promising for use as the MRI contrast agent to identify liver malignancies.