Drug-releasing depots in mouse lungs.

Confocal micrograph of whole mouse lungs loaded with drug carrying microparticles (red/pink). The microparticles were also loaded with a fluorescent tracking dye so that they could be visualised 1 week after administration. Cell nuclei (blue) and cell membrane sugars (green) are also visible. The right lung in mice is divided into four lobes (right side of image), but the left lung has only one lobe (left side of image). The top of the lungs are orientated towards the top of the image. Remnants of the windpipe (trachea) and surrounding tissue are visible in the centre of the image. Current anti-cancer therapies have many toxic side effects so research into other ways of delivering drugs to specific areas of the body are being investigated in order to decrease these unwanted side effects. Here, microparticles were delivered to the lungs using a route similar to drugs administered by an inhaler. Horizontal width of image is 12.7 mm. Confocal micrograph 2014