Liposome shedding from a vibrating microbubble on nanoseconds timescale

When ultrasound contrast agents microbubbles (MBs) are preloaded with liposomes, they can be applied as a potential drug delivery vehicle. The fate of the liposomes under ultrasound excitations is of prime interest for investigations, since it is an essential step in the application of drug delivery. Previous studies on regular lipid-shelled MBs have shown lipid shedding phenomena, accompanied by MB shrinkage under ultrasound excitations. Here we present a multi-modal study to optically characterize shedding behavior of liposome-loaded MBs (lps-MBs) based on high-speed fluorescence imaging. First, the dynamics of shedding were resolved by the Brandaris camera operating at up to 2 million frames per second (Mfps). Shedding of shell material was observed after few cycles of the excitation pulse. Second, a parametric study using a Photron camera running at 75 kfps indicates a significant influence of MB resonance on the shedding behavior. Third, the shedding behavior was investigated as a function of the MB oscillatory dynamics, facilitated by combination of the two fast cameras. We found a threshold of the relative amplitude of oscillations (35%) for the onset of lipids shedding. Overall, the shedding behavior from lps-MBs could well be controlled by the excitation pulse.

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