Abstract #0561

Qiu B, Gao F, Kar S, Zhang J, Walczak P, Bulte J, Yang X

This study evaluated the potential use of MRI to monitor, in vivo, trafficking of magnetically labeled bone marrow (BM) cells to atherosclerotic lesions. Feridex-labeled or unlabeled LacZ-BM cells were transplanted into ApoE-/- mice with atherosclerotic lesions. In vivo MR imaging showed large MR signal voids in the ascending aorta of mice with Feridex-BM transplantation, which were not visualized in the control mice with unlabeled BM transplantation or without BM transplantation. Results of this study demonstrate the potential of monitoring BM cell trafficking to atherosclerotic plaques using in vivo MR imaging.