Molecular imaging of Toll-like receptor 4 detects ischemia-reperfusion injury during intussusception

• Published in: Oncotarget Vol. 9; no. 8; pp. 7882 - 7890
• Main Authors: Hu, Zhang-Chun, Tan, Ya-Lan, Huang, Shun-Gen, Pan, Peng, Liu, Xiao-Bo, Wang, Jian, Guo, Wan-Liang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Impact Journals LLC 30.01.2018
• Subjects: Research Paper; PbS quantum dots; in vivo imaging; intussusception; ischemia-reperfusion; TLR4
• ISSN: 1949-2553; 1949-2553
• DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.23609

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, < 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; < 0.05). Thus, anti-TLR4-PbS QDs bound to TLR4 on the cell membranes of intestinal epithelial cells with high specificity and . These results indicate that TLR4 promotes intestinal I/R injury during intussusception and that the injury can be noninvasively imaged using TLR4-PbS QDs.