Xenon for NMR biosensing - Inert but alert

NMR studies with hyperpolarized xenon as functionalized sensor or contrast agent recently made notable progress in developing a new approach for detecting molecular markers and parameters of biomedical interest. Combining spin polarization enhancement with novel indirect detection schemes easily enables a 10(7)-fold signal gain, thus having promising potential to solve the NMR sensitivity problem in many applications. Though an inert element, Xe-129 has exquisite NMR properties to sense molecular environments. This review summarizes recent developments in the production of hyperpolarized xenon and the design and detection schemes of xenon biosensors. (C) 2011 Associazione Italiana di Fisica Medica. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.