A Hyaluronic Acid-Conjugated Gadolinium Hepatocyte-Specific T1 Contrast Agent for Liver Magnetic Resonance Imaging

In this study, we synthesized hyaluronic acid-conjugated gadolinium (HA-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA)-Gd) and evaluated as hepatocyte-specific magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent for the diagnosis of hepatic metastasis. We conducted Fourier transform (FT)-IR analysis to determine the conjugation of HA and DTPA and performed cell viability assays using NIH3T3 and FL83B cell lines. We also conducted T1-weighted MRI of HA-DTPA-Gd and gadoxetic acid to compare the paramagnetic properties of both. HA-DTPA-Gd had a higher efficiency in liver MRI compared with the commercially available liver-specific contrast agent (p < 0.001). HA-DTPA-Gd, which possessed a higher T1 relaxivity, showed excellent capability for the diagnosis of hepatic metastasis through an in vivo MRI study in comparison with gadoxetic acid (p < 0.001). Based on this study, we believe that HA-DTPA-Gd has promising potential for use as a contrast agent for liver MRI of hepatic metastases.