Fig. 4: In vivo renal CT imaging of E-Au-Agents.
a Representative in vivo renal CT images before and after intravenous injection of E-Au-Agents at an injection dose of 200 mg/kg (12.7 μM Au/mouse). In comparison, iopromide was also accordingly conducted with the same (1×) and doubled (2×) molar concentration as E-Au-Agents. These images were presented in coronal and axial views, respectively. Kidneys were indicated by yellow triangles. RK right kidney, LK left kidney. b Schematic illustration of renal structures, including cortex, medulla and pelvis. c Kinetic curves of CT enhancement of whole kidney over time (i) and relative area under the curves (AUCs) (ii). CT enhancement = HUt − HUt = 0 min. d Kinetic curves of CT enhancement of cortex over time (i) and relative AUCs (ii). e Kinetic curves of CT enhancement of medulla with pelvis (M + P) over time (i) and relative AUCs (ii). f The HU difference between the cortex and surrounding tissue at 10 min post injection (p.i.). g Kidney structures with enhancement of E-Au-Agents at 10 min p.i can be visualized. Segmentation was based on kidney structure and CT value, along a line crossing the center of longitudinal section starting from the kidney surface (0%) to pelvis (100%), with 0–18% region of cortex, 18–38% region of outer stripe of the outer medulla (OSOM), 38–52% region of inner stripe of the outer medulla (ISOM) and 52–67% region of inner medulla (IM). h E-Au-Agents-guided 3D reconstruction of the kidneys. The kidney volumes were determined as 208.96 mm3 for LK and 236.44 mm3 for RK. All data points in this figure (c–f) are presented as mean ± SD and n = 3 mice, 6 data dots represented 6 kidneys of 3 mice. Statistical significance was evaluated by two-sided unpaired Student’s t test. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
