Influence of particle shape on plasma protein adsorption and macrophage uptake.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the plasma protein adsorption behavior onto different LIPOMER nanoparticles, especially looking for the first time, if the particle shape affects the protein adsorption pattern. The potential in vivo fate is discussed and compared with previous in vivo animal studies. The two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) was used for identification of adsorbed plasma proteins. Qualitative similar patterns were obtained from the protein adsorption analysis and four apolipoproteins with considerable quantitative differences were identified. Besides the quantitative differences in the adsorbed apolipoproteins, in vitro uptake in the human macrophage cell line U-937 of histocytic lymphoma organ revealed significantly lower uptake of the irregular glycerol monostearate LIPOMER nanoparticles. Therefore, protein adsorption does not seem to play a role in the splenotropic behavior in the sense, that adsorption of opsonins, especially spleen-specific opsonins are required for the uptake. The splenotropic uptake might be favored because all LIPOMER nanoparticles did not adsorb opsonins at all, mediating competitive uptake by liver macrophages. Differences in the in vivo uptake by the spleen were attributed to differences in particle shape with potential super position effect by the quantitative differences in the adsorbed proteins.

Adsorption kinetics of plasma proteins on ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) nanoparticles.

In this study the kinetics of plasma protein adsorption onto ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) particles have been analyzed and compared to previously published kinetic studies on polystyrene particles (PS particles), oil-in-water nanoemulsions and solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs). SPIO and USPIO nanoparticles are commonly used as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enhancers for tumor imaging as well as in drug delivery applications. Two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) has been used to determine the plasma protein adsorption onto the citrate/triethylene glycol-stabilized iron oxide surface. The results indicate that the existence of a Vroman effect, a displacement of previously adsorbed abundant proteins, such as albumin or fibrinogen, respectively, on USPIO particles has to be denied. Previously, identical findings have been reported for oil-in-water nanoemulsions. Furthermore, the protein adsorption kinetics differs dramatically from that of other solid drug delivery systems (PS, SLN). More relevant for the in vivo fate of long circulating particles is the protein corona after several minutes or even hours. Interestingly, the patterns received after an incubation time of 0.5 min to 240 min are found to be qualitatively and quantitatively similar. This leads to the assumption of a long-lived ("hard") protein corona around the iron oxide nanoparticles.