Our goal is to develop the functionalized superparamagnetic
iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) demonstrating the capacities
to be delivered in liver specifically and to be dispersed in
physiological environment stably. For this purpose, SPIONs
were coated with polyvinylbenzyl-O-β-D-galactopyranosyl-D-gluconamide (PVLA) having
galactose moieties to be recognized by asialoglycoprotein
receptors (ASGP-R) on hepatocytes. For use as a control, we also
prepared SPIONs coordinated with 2-pyrrolidone. The sizes, size
distribution, structure, and coating of the nanoparticles were
characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM),
electrophoretic light scattering spectrophotometer (ELS), X-ray
diffractometer (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR),
respectively. Intracellular uptake of the PVLA-coated SPIONs was
visualized by confocal laser scanning microscopy, and their
hepatocyte-specific delivery was also investigated through
magnetic resonance (MR) images of rat liver. MRI experimental
results indicated that the PVLA-coated SPIONs possess the more
specific accumulation property in liver compared with control,
which suggests their potential utility as liver-targeting MRI
contrast agent.