Abstract #1840

Deans A, Wadghiri Y, Bernas L, Yu X, Rutt B, Turnbull D

Cellular MRI contrast is demonstrated in an in vitro system via co-expression of the TfR and FTH genes in a transfected mouse neural stem cell line. Our results demonstrate that transfected cells have increased iron accumulation with no detectable cell toxicity. The differential accumulation of iron results in a significant increase in transverse relaxivities R2 and R2* at 1.5T and 7T, with increased effect at higher field strength. Increased R2* effect is also observed following transplantation into mouse forebrain by T2*-weighted brain imaging and R2* relaxometry at 7T.