Institute for Health Research Aragon (IIS Aragón), Zaragoza, 50009, Spain.
Department of Surgery, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 50009, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 27;14(1):29512. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-80931-z.
Selective sentinel lymph node biopsy (SNLB) is the standard method for detecting regional metastases in breast cancer patients. Identifying affected axillary lymph nodes before neoadjuvant treatment is crucial, as such treatment may alter drainage pathways and lymph node morphology, hindering the identification of sentinel lymph nodes. The use of carbon-based tattooing on sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) has been employed as a permanent tattooing method in clinical studies of Targeted Axillary Dissection (TAD), aiding in the SLN identification during surgery. Our study introduces a new method of lymph node tattooing based on poly lactic-co-glycolic (PLGA) particles with encapsulated carbon. This strategy substantially improves tattooing efficiency over single carbon suspensions currently used in clinical studies. We synthesized and characterized carbon-loaded PLGA micro- and nanoparticles, experimentally assessing their biological impact on porcine lymph nodes. The effect of particles' size and concentration was evaluated over time (from 1 to 16 weeks). Light and electron microscopy studies were conducted to characterize the cellular effects induced by the presence of these particles. Our findings reveal that the diverse physicochemical parameters of the particles interact differently with the lymphatic tissue, influencing their biodistribution within the lymph nodes and the intensity of the inflammatory response.
前哨淋巴结活检（SNLB）是检测乳腺癌患者区域转移的标准方法。在新辅助治疗前确定受影响的腋窝淋巴结至关重要，因为这种治疗可能改变引流途径和淋巴结形态，从而阻碍前哨淋巴结的识别。在靶向腋窝解剖学（TAD）的临床研究中，已将碳基纹身应用于前哨淋巴结（SLN）作为一种永久性纹身方法，有助于在手术中识别 SLN。我们的研究介绍了一种基于包封碳的聚丙交酯-乙交酯（PLGA）颗粒的新型淋巴结纹身方法。与目前在临床研究中使用的单一碳悬浮液相比，这种策略大大提高了纹身效率。我们合成并表征了负载碳的 PLGA 微球和纳米球，实验评估了它们对猪淋巴结的生物学影响。评估了颗粒尺寸和浓度随时间的影响（从 1 周到 16 周）。进行了光镜和电子显微镜研究，以表征这些颗粒存在引起的细胞效应。我们的研究结果表明，颗粒的各种物理化学参数与淋巴组织的相互作用不同，影响它们在淋巴结内的生物分布和炎症反应的强度。
