Biodistribution of maltose and gum arabic hybrid gold nanoparticles after intravenous injection in juvenile swine.

This article describes several experiments performed to test our hypothesis that the agent used to coat/stabilize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) will act to direct the AuNPs to specific tissues within the body and that changing the coating will change the target organ. Samples were also collected for pathological examination. Gum arabic- (GA) and maltose- (MALT) stabilized AuNPs were administered intravenously to juvenile swine, and blood, tissue, and urine samples were collected for gold analysis. Our results indicate that differences do exist between the two NP constructs tested, with 50% or greater of the total gold dose being found in the liver or lung for the GA- and MALT-stabilized AuNPs, respectively. These findings indicate that the functional unit used to coat/stabilize the AuNPs has an important role in determining the tissue distribution profile for individual AuNP constructs.