Research Papers:
Molecular imaging of Toll-like receptor 4 detects ischemia-reperfusion injury during intussusception
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Abstract
Zhang-Chun Hu1,*, Ya-Lan Tan1,*, Shun-Gen Huang2, Peng Pan1, Xiao-Bo Liu2, Jian Wang2 and Wan-Liang Guo1
1Radiology Department, Children’s Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215003, China
2General Surgery Department, Children’s Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215003, China
*These authors contributed equally to this work
Correspondence to:
Wan-Liang Guo, email: [email protected]
Keywords: intussusception; ischemia-reperfusion; TLR4; in vivo imaging; PbS quantum dots
Received: September 27, 2017 Accepted: November 13, 2017 Published: December 22, 2017
ABSTRACT
We investigated the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) in the acute phase of intestinal I/R injury during intussusception and evaluated whether anti-TLR4 antibody-conjugated lead sulfide quantum dots (TLR4-PbS QDs) could be used to detect and monitor the injury. We first established a mouse model of I/R injury during intussusception. TLR-PbS QDs were then intravenously administered to intestinal I/R injured mice and visualized using whole-body fluorescence imaging in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II). Immunohistochemical analysis of intestinal tissue from the mice revealed that TLR4 expression was higher in the I/R injury group than the control and TAK-242 groups (5.189 ± 2.482, 1.186 ± 1.171, and 2.400 ± 0.857, respectively, P < 0.05). NIR-II fluorescence intensity was also higher in the I/R injury group than in the control and TAK-242 groups (86.415 ± 10.955, 38.975 ± 8.619, and 71.977 ± 3.838, respectively; P < 0.05). Thus, anti-TLR4-PbS QDs bound to TLR4 on the cell membranes of intestinal epithelial cells with high specificity in vitro and in vivo. These results indicate that TLR4 promotes intestinal I/R injury during intussusception and that the injury can be noninvasively imaged using TLR4-PbS QDs.

PII: 23609