@article{Villa2015, 
author = {Irene Villa and Anna Vedda and Irene Xochilt Cantarelli and Marco Pedroni and Fabio Piccinelli and Marco Bettinelli and Adolfo Speghini and Marta Quintanilla and Fiorenzo Vetrone and Ueslen Rocha and Carlos Jacinto and Elisa Carrasco and Francisco Sanz Rodríguez and Ángeles Juarranz and Blanca del Rosal and Dirk H. Ortgies and Patricia Haro Gonzalez and José García Solé and Daniel Jaque García},
title = {1.3 μm emitting SrF2: Nd3+ nanoparticles for high contrast in vivo imaging in the second biological window},
year = {2015},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {8},
number = {2},
pages = {649-665},
keywords = {fluorescence imaging, nanomedicine, rare earth doped nanoparticles},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-014-0549-1},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-014-0549-1},
abstract = {Novel approaches for high contrast, deep tissue, in vivo fluorescence biomedical imaging are based on infrared-emitting nanoparticles working in the so-called second biological window (1, 000–1, 400 nm). This allows for the acquisition of high resolution, deep tissue images due to the partial transparency of tissues in this particular spectral range. In addition, the optical excitation with low energy (infrared) photons also leads to a drastic reduction in the contribution of autofluorescence to the in vivo image. Nevertheless, as is demonstrated here, working solely in this biological window does not ensure a complete removal of autofluorescence as the specimen's diet shows a remarkable infrared fluorescence that extends up to 1, 100 nm. In this work, we show how the 1, 340 nm emission band of Nd3+ ions embedded in SrF2 nanoparticles can be used to produce autofluorescence free, high contrast in vivo fluorescence images. It is also demonstrated that the complete removal of the food-related infrared autofluorescence is imperative for the development of reliable biodistribution studies.}
}