Synthesis and evaluation of chitosan manganese-ferrite nanoparticles as MRI contrast agent

Magnetic nanoparticles are the good choice for using in MRI as the contrast agent. Iron oxide particles such as magnetite (Fe3O4) or its oxidized form maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) are the most commonly employed in biomedical applications. In this study, we synthesized and optimized the preparation of chitosan manganese-ferrite nanoparticles (CMn-Fe nps) and evaluated its ability for the mice macrophage cells imaging with MRI. The core and hydrodynamic size of the nanoparticles was 54±27 nm and 149±48 nm respectively. The magnetization reached a saturation magnetization value of 95 emu/g. The MRI images showed that the liver and some other organs were accumulated the CMn-Fe nps and produced a negative contrast in images. CMn-Fe nps demonstrated that it is a good candidate for using as a contrast agent material in macrophage cells imaging with MRI.