Abstract #2926

Artemov D, Ostrovskaya L, Okollie B, Kato Y, Walczak P, Bulte J

Bone marrowderived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play a significant role in tumor vasculogenesis. In vivo techniques to detect incorporation of MSCs to the tumor vasculature are important for detailed studies of tumor progression and for development of novel anti-angiogenic therapies. We used MRI to monitor homing of iron-oxide-labeled-MSCs to the tumor neovasculature in two prostate cancer models with different growth rates. A significantly higher initial accumulation of MSCs was detected in highly aggressive MatLyLu model in comparison to slow growing human PC-3 cancer, suggesting that rapidly growing tumors can depend to a greater extent upon the MSC recruitment.