Hisanori Kosuge1, Masahiro Terashima1, Masaki Uchida2, Sarah Sherlock3, Philip S. Tsao1, Mark J. Young2, Trevor Douglas2, Hongjie Dai3, Michael V. McConnell1
1Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 2Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA; 3Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Inflammation plays a critical role in the progression of atherosclerosis. Magnetite incorporated human ferritin protein cages and graphite/FeCo core-shell nanocrystals may allow noninvasive high-field MRI detection of vascular macrophages in mouse arteries. We demonstrate that MRI at 7T can detect vascular macrophages with magnetite protein cage nanoparticles and graphite/FeCo core-shell nanocrystals in mouse atherosclerotic lesions.