Abstract #1894

Kozlowski P, Flores J, Yung A, MacKay A, Doudet D

Human Retinal Pigment Epithelial (hRPE) cells attached to gelatine micro-carriers were labelled with iron using Ferumoxide-Protamine Sulfate preparation and implanted in the striatum of a rat brain. T2-weighted images acquired at 3 and 8 weeks post implantation confirmed the presence of iron labelled cells in their original location at both time points. This pilot study shows that the in vivo long term MR imaging of the SPIO-labelled hRPE-GM cells is possible. This technique may prove to be a viable method to follow up the hRPE cells for studying the efficacy of the implantation based treatment of Parkinsons Disease.