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Abstract #3866

In Vivo Tracking of Ferritin Over-Expressing Human Neural Progenitor Cells in the Rat Central Nervous System

Ksenija Bernau1, Christina Lewis2, Anna Petelinsek3, Masatoshi Suzuki4, Mary Elizabeth Meyerand, 12, Clive Svendsen5

1Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 2Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 3Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 4Comparative Biosciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 5Regenerative Medicine Institute, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States


The development of stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative diseases has made great progress in the past decade. The ability to track engrafted cells in vivo will be an essential tool in research and clinical translation of these methods. This research aims to develop a cell tracking method that is clinically translatable, leaves cell dynamics unaffected, and provides specific information regarding cell location and survival. Over-expression of the iron storage protein ferritin enables human neural progenitor cell detection on GE T2*-weighted images after engraftment in the rat brain.