Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Non-invasive Optical Imaging of the Lymphatic Vasculature of a Mouse
Published on: March 8, 2013
Carboxyl-Modified Quantum Dots for NIR-IIb Bone Marrow Imaging
Peng Zhang1,2, Yuran Wang1, Xiaotong Liu1
1Biomaterials Research Center, School of Biomedical Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Construction and Detection in Tissue Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China.
Abstract:
Real-time, noninvasive, and nonradiative bone imaging can directly visualize bone health but requires bone-targeted probes with high specificity. Herein, we propose that carboxyl-rich fluorescent nanoprobes are easily absorbed by macrophages in bone marrow during circulation, enabling optical bone marrow imaging in vivo. We used PbS/CdS core-shell quantum dots with NIR-IIb (1500-1700 nm) emission as substrates to prepare the carboxyl-rich nanoprobe. In vivo NIR-IIb fluorescence imaging with the nanoprobes showed high resolution and penetration depth in bone tissues and allowed for imaging-guided fracture diagnosis. Bone tissue slices showed substantial accumulation of carboxyl nanoprobes in the bone marrow and strong colocalization with macrophages. Similar results with CdSe quantum dots and an organic nanofluorophore suggest that carboxyl surface modification is effective to achieve bone marrow targeting, providing a novel strategy for developing bone/bone marrow imaging probes.
Related Concept Videos
Carbon-13 (¹³C) NMR: Overview
¹³C NMR: Distortionless Enhancement by Polarization Transfer (DEPT)
¹³C NMR: ¹H–¹³C Decoupling
A broadband decoupling technique is used to simplify these complex, sometimes overlapping, signals. Broadband decoupling relies on a...
Nuclear Overhauser Enhancement (NOE)
Other Nuclides: 31P, 19F, 15N NMR
While fluorine-19 and phosphorous-31 have high natural abundances (100%) and positive gyromagnetic ratios, nitrogen-15 has a low natural abundance and a negative gyromagnetic ratio. However, nitrogen-15 is still preferred over nitrogen-14 (which has a high...
Insensitive Nuclei Enhanced by Polarization Transfer (INEPT)

