In vitro incorporation studies of 99mTc–alendronate sodium at different bone cell lines

Bisphosphonates can be labeled with Technetium-99m ( 99m Tc) and are used for bone imaging because of their good localization in the skeleton and rapid clearance from soft tissues. Over the last decades bone scintigraphy has been used extensively in the evaluation of oncological patients to provide information about the sites of bone lesions, their prognosis and the effectiveness of therapy by showing the sequential changes in tracer uptake. Since the lesion visualization and lesion/bone ratio are important utilities for a bone scanning radiopharmaceutic; in this study incorporation of 99m Tc labeled alendronate sodium ( 99m Tc–ALD) was evaluated in U 2 OS (human bone osteosarcoma) and NCI-H209 (human bone carcinoma) cell lines. ALD was directly labeled by 99m Tc, radiochemical purity and stability of the complex were analyzed by radioactive thin layer chromatography and radioactive high performance liquid chromatography studies. For cell incorporation study, NCI-H209 and U 2 OS cell lines were used with standard cell culture methods. The six well plates were used for all experiments and the integrity of each cell monolayer was checked by measuring its transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) with an epithelial voltammeter. Results confirmed that ALD was successfully radiolabeled with 99m Tc. 99m Tc–ALD incorporated with NCI-H209 and U 2 OS cells. The uptake percentages of 99m Tc–ALD in NCI-H209 and U 2 OS cell lines were found significantly different. Since 99m Tc–ALD highly uptake in cancer cell line, the results demonstrated that radiolabeled ALD may be a promising agent for bone cancer diagnosis.