Franchini, M.C.M.C.FranchiniPonti, J.J.PontiLemor, R.M.R.M.LemorFournelle, M.M.FournelleBroggi, F.F.BroggiLocatelli, E.E.Locatelli2022-03-042022-03-042010https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/22295910.1039/C0JM02209HThe behaviour of polymeric entrapped thiol-coated GNRs in culture medium under biological conditions was analysed. The in vitro cytotoxicity was studied by a Colony Forming Efficiency assay on immortalized mouse fibroblasts (Balb/3T3) obtaining a dose-effect relationship in which a half inhibitory concentration (IC50) was 20.3µM. The suitability of the new nanomaterial as an optoacoustic contrast agent was investigated in phantom studies using a hardware platform suitable for retrieving clinically relevant data. Spherical alginate phantoms containing GNR-2-PNPs at different concentrations were synthesized and the optoacoustic signal amplitudes were measured as a function of concentration. Signals could be obtained with satisfying signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) down to concentrations of 11 µM corresponding to subtoxic concentration in our in vitro model. The nanomaterial proved to be a suitable and promising contrast agent for different optoacoustic imaging modalities including multispectral approaches.en610620540journal article