Thomson Lindsay M, Polizzotti Brian D, McGowan Frances X, Kheir John N
Department of Cardiology, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania.
J Vis Exp. 2014 May 26(87):51467. doi: 10.3791/51467.
Gas-filled microbubbles have been developed as ultrasound contrast and drug delivery agents. Microbubbles can be produced by processing surfactants using sonication, mechanical agitation, microfluidic devices, or homogenization. Recently, lipid-based oxygen microbubbles (LOMs) have been designed to deliver oxygen intravenously during medical emergencies, reversing life-threatening hypoxemia, and preventing subsequent organ injury, cardiac arrest, and death. We present methods for scaled-up production of highly oxygenated microbubbles using a closed-loop high-shear homogenizer. The process can produce 2 L of concentrated LOMs (90% by volume) in 90 min. Resulting bubbles have a mean diameter of ~2 μm, and a rheologic profile consistent with that of blood when diluted to 60 volume %. This technique produces LOMs in high capacity and with high oxygen purity, suggesting that this technique may be useful for translational research labs.
气体填充微泡已被开发用作超声造影剂和药物递送剂。微泡可以通过使用超声处理、机械搅拌、微流控装置或匀浆法来处理表面活性剂来产生。最近，基于脂质的氧微泡（LOMs）被设计用于在医疗紧急情况下静脉输送氧气，逆转危及生命的低氧血症，并预防随后的器官损伤、心脏骤停和死亡。我们展示了使用闭环高剪切匀浆器扩大生产高氧微泡的方法。该过程可在90分钟内生产2升浓缩的LOMs（体积占比90%）。产生的气泡平均直径约为2μm，当稀释至60体积%时，其流变学特征与血液一致。该技术能够高产量且高氧纯度地生产LOMs，表明该技术可能对转化研究实验室有用。
