Application of TXRF to the monitoring of bioaccumulation in gold nano-rods

A Spanish group has recently published a very interesting application of total-reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF). The research team has evaluated the bioaccumulation kinetics of gold nanorods (GNRs) in various tissues upon intravenous administration in mice. It was found that the main achievement was clearly differentiating two kinds of behaviors; gold nano rods were quickly bioaccumulated by highly vascular filtration organs such as the liver and spleen, while they do not show bioaccumulation rates in the brain and lung for the period of time investigated. For more information, see the paper, "Evaluation of Bioaccumulation Kinetics of Gold Nanorods in Vital Mammalian Organs by Means of Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry", R. Fernandez-Ruiz et al., Anal. Chem., 86, 7383 (2014).