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The purpose of this paper was to detect and separate the cluster intensity provided by Iron oxide nanoparticles (IO-NPs), in the MRI images, to investigate the drug delivery effectiveness. IO-NPs were attached to the macrophages and inserted into the eye of the inflamed mouse's calf. The low resolution of MRI and the tiny dimension of the IO-NPs made the situation challenging. IO-NPs serve as a marker, due to their strong intensity in the MRI, enabling us to follow the track of the macrophages. An image processing procedure was developed to estimate the position and the amount of IO-NPs spreading inside the inflamed mouse leg. A fuzzy Clustering algorithm was adopted to select the region of interest (ROI). A 3D model of the femoral region was used for the detection and then the extraction IO-NPs in the MRI images. The results achieved prove the effectiveness of the proposed method to improve the control process of targeted drug delivered. It helps in optimizing the treatment and opens a promising novel research axis for nanomedicine applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their interesting size-dependent magnetic characteristics and relative biocompatibility, magnetic superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles have been widely exploited as probes for cell and subcellular structure identification, as well as medication and gene delivery. A thorough understanding of the mechanics of the interaction between nanoparticles and macrophages is vital in managing dynamic processes in nanomedicine. In this study, the interaction behavior and uptake of SPIO nanoparticles by M1- and M2-type macrophages were investigated. Mice monocytes were differentiated into M1 and M2 macrophages, and the uptake of SPIO nanoparticles was studied using a TEM microscope. A high resolution image of 1 nm resolution, an image processing technique, was developed to extract the SPIO-NPs from tomographic TEM microscopic images. Lysosomes appear to be the zones of high concentrations of SPIO inside macrophages. Lysosomes were first selected in each image, and then segmentation by the Otsu thresholding method was used to extract the SPIO-NPs. The Otsu threshold method is a global thresholding technique used to automatically differentiate SPIOs from the background. The SPIO-NPs appear in red colors, and the other pixels in the image are considered background. Then, an estimation of the SPIO-NP uptakes by lysosomes is produced. Higher uptake of all-sized nanoparticles was observed in M1- and M2-type macrophages. An accurate estimation of the number of SPIO-NPs was obtained. This result will help in controlling targeted drug delivery and assessing the safety impact of the use of SPIO-NPs in nanomedicine for humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]