Abstract #1874

Qiu B, Gao F, Kar S, Zhang J, Walczak P, Larabi M, Xue R, Frost E, Qian Z, Bulte J, Yang X

We attempted to develop a new method of using MRI to track the migration of bone marrow (BM) cells to the injured arteries. Feridex-labeled LacZ-BM cells were transplanted into recipient nude mice with cuff-induced injury in the femoral arteries. Both in vivo MRI and ex-vivo 3D MRI showed large hypointense regions at the sites of injured arteries, which were histologically correlated with Feridex- and LacZ-positive cells in the harvested arterial tissues. This study provides the first evidence to support the potential use of MRI to track the migration of magnetically labeled BM cells to the injured arteries.