Biological reduction of nitroimidazole-functionalized gold nanorods for photoacoustic imaging of tumor hypoxia

Tumor- selective accumulation of gold nanorods ( GNR) has been demonstrated for visualization of tumor hypoxia by photoacoustic imaging. We prepared GNRs with hypoxia- targeting nitroimidazole units ( G- NI) on their surface. Biological experiments revealed that G- NI produced a strong photoacoustic signal in hypoxic tumor cells and tissues.