Organic fluorophore coated polycrystalline ceramic LSO:Ce scintillators for x-ray bioimaging.

The current effort demonstrates that lutetium oxyorthosilicate doped with 1-10% cerium (Lu2SiO5:Ce, LSO:Ce) radioluminescent particles can be coated with a single dye or multiple dyes and generate an effective energy transfer between the core and dye(s) when excited via X-rays. LSO:Ce particles were surface modified with an alkyne modified naphthalimide (6-piperidin-1-yl-2-prop-2-yn-1-yl-1H-benzo[de]isoquinoline-1,3-(2H)-dione, AlNap) and alkyne modified rhodamine B (N-(6-diethylamino)-9-{2-[(prop-2-yn-1-yloxy)carbonyl]phenyl}-3H-xanthen-3-ylidene)-N-ethylethanaminium, AlRhod) derivatives to tune the X-ray excited optical luminescence from blue to green to red using Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET). As X-rays penetrate tissue much more effectively than UV/visible light, the fluorophore modified phosphors may have applications as bioimaging agents. To that end, the phosphors were incubated with rat cortical neurons and imaged after 24 h. The LSO:Ce surface modified with AlNap was able to be successfully imaged in vitro with a low-output X-ray tube. To use the LSO:Ce fluorophore modified particles as imaging agents, they must not induce cytotoxicity. Neither LSO:Ce nor LSO:Ce modified with AlNap showed any cytotoxicity toward normal human dermal fibroblast cells or mouse cortical neurons, respectively.