A simple way to track single gold-loaded alginate microcapsules using x-ray CT in small animal longitudinal studies

We report the fabrication and characterization of alginate MCs containing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) which exhibited effectiveness as x-ray imaging contrast agents in a post-mortem rodent model. Having a high x-ray absorption and thus a high SNR, the labeled capsules could be readily segmented from surrounding soft tissues. In particular, they were found to be compatible with longitudinal tracking studies using conventional CT machines since effective imaging can be achieved at low x-ray doses required for imaging at multiple time points.269