MR Imaging of Tumor Initiating Melanoma Cells

Sergey Magnitsky¹, Alexander Roesch², Stephen Pickup¹, Meenhard Herlyn², Jerry D. Glickson¹

Melanoma cells were labeled with iron oxide particles and allowed to proliferate. Small iron-retaining sub-cell population with original iron concentration has been detected after 21 days of proliferation. This sub-cell population exhibits high tumorigenicity, self-renewal capacity and drug resistance, and therefore fulfills a definition of tumor initiating cells. After implantation of labeled cells into NOD/SCID mice, iron-retaining cells have been detected by in vivo, ex vivo MRI and Prussian blue staining.