Abstract #0182
Imaging of islet transplantation in a pre-clinical animal model using an FDA-approved contrast agent: in vivo studies.
Dai G, Moore A, Leyting S, Evgenov N, Medarova Z, Pantazopoulos P
Massachusetts General Hospital
Islet transplantation is an effective therapy for patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus. It is critical to develop reliable non-invasive imaging techniques that can determine graft location and survival after transplantation. We used the FDA-approved commercially available contrast agent FERIDEX to label human pancreatic islets for in vivo detection by MR imaging in a clinically relevant animal model of islet transplantation. The results of our study demonstrated a direct correlation between the apparent decrease in the number of intrahepatically transplanted islets on MR images and the rate of apoptosis observed by histological methods.
