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Updated: May 28, 2026

Preparation, Purification, and Characterization of Lanthanide Complexes for Use as Contrast Agents for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: July 21, 2011
Polydisulfide manganese(II) complexes as non-gadolinium biodegradable macromolecular MRI contrast agents
Zhen Ye1, Eun-Kee Jeong, Xueming Wu
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Purpose:
To develop safe and effective manganese(II) -based biodegradable macromolecular MRI contrast agents.
Materials And Methods:
In this study, we synthesized and characterized two polydisulfide manganese(II) complexes, Mn-DTPA cystamine copolymers and Mn-EDTA cystamine copolymers, as new biodegradable macromolecular MRI contrast agents. The contrast enhancement of the two manganese-based contrast agents were evaluated in mice bearing MDA-MB-231 human breast carcinoma xenografts, in comparison with MnCl(2) .
Results:
The T(1) and T(2) relaxivities were 4.74 and 10.38 mM(-1) s(-1) per manganese at 3T for Mn-DTPA cystamine copolymers (M(n) = 30.50 kDa) and 6.41 and 9.72 mM(-1) s(-1) for Mn-EDTA cystamine copolymers (M(n) = 61.80 kDa). Both polydisulfide Mn(II) complexes showed significant liver, myocardium and tumor enhancement.
Conclusion:
The manganese-based polydisulfide contrast agents have a potential to be developed as alternative non-gadolinium contrast agents for MR cancer and myocardium imaging.
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