Preparation and Quality Control of 68Ga-Citrate for PET Applications

  Objective(s): In nuclear medicine studies, gallium-68 (68Ga) citrate has been recently known as a suitable infection agent in positron emission tomography (PET). In this study, by applying an in-house produced 68Ge/68Ga generator, a simple technique for the synthesis and quality control of 68Ga-citrate was introduced; followed by preliminary animal studies. Methods: 68GaCl3 eluted from the generator was studied in terms of quality control factors including radiochemical purity (assessed by HPLC and RTLC), chemical purity (assessed by ICP-EOS), radionuclide purity (evaluated by HPGe), and breakthrough. 68Ga-citrate was prepared from eluted 68GaCl3 and sodium citrate under various reaction conditions. Stability of the complex was evaluated in human serum for 2 h at 370C, followed by biodistribution studies in rats for 120 min. Results: 68Ga-citrate was prepared with acceptable radiochemical purity (>97 ITLC and >98% HPLC), specific activity (4-6 GBq/mM), chemical purity (Sn, FeConclusion: This study demonstrated the possible in-house preparation and quality control of 68Ga-citrate, using a commercially available 68Ge/68Ga generator for PET imaging throughout the country.