Radiolabelling of TiO2 nanoparticles for radiotracer studies

• DOI: 10.1007/s11051-009-9806-8
• Publication Date: 2009-11-25T17:56:09Z
• Authors: Kamel Abbas; Izabela Cydzik; Riccardo Del Torchio; Massimo Farina; Efrat Forti; Neil Gibson; Uwe Holzwarth; Federica Simonelli; Wolfgang Kreyling
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Industrially manufactured titanium dioxide nanoparticles have been successfully radiolabelled with 48V by irradiation with a cyclotron-generated proton beam. Centrifugation tests showed that the 48V radiolabels were stably bound within the nanoparticle structure in an aqueous medium, while X-ray diffraction indicated that no major structural modifications to the nanoparticles resulted from the proton irradiation. In vitro tests of the uptake of cold and radiolabelled nanoparticles using the human cell line Calu-3 showed no significant difference in the uptake between both batches of nanoparticles. The uptake was quantified by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry and high resolution γ-ray spectrometry for cold and radiolabelled nanoparticles, respectively. These preliminary results indicate that alterations to the nanoparticles’ properties introduced by proton bombardment can be controlled to a sufficient extent that their further use as radiotracers for biological investigations can be envisaged and elaborated.