Phase Behavior of Mixed Lipid Monolayers on Perfluorocarbon Nanoemulsions and its Effect on Acoustic Contrast.

ABSTRACT: Lipid-stabilized nanoemulsions containing a volatile liquid perfluorocarbon core have been studied as ultrasound contrast agents owing to their ability to transform into high-contrast microbubbles when subjected to high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). However, while there have been several studies on the effect of acoustic parameters on contrast, the effect of the droplet's stabilizing shell has not been studied as extensively. Inspired by previous studies showing lateral phase separation in microbubbles and vesicles, nanodroplets were formulated with a perfluorohexane core and a shell composed of varying amounts of saturated (DPPC) phospholipids, unsaturated (DOPC) phospholipids, and cholesterol, which were fractionated to obtain nanodroplets of mean diameter 300-400 nm and were stab

SUBMITTER: Chattaraj R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5461969 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature