Donna E. Goldhawk1, Rene Figueredo2, Claude Lemaire3, Paula Foster4, Savita Dhanvantari5, Jim Koropatnick2, R Terry Thompson1, Frank S. Prato1
1Imaging, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada; 2London Regional Cancer Program, London, ON, Canada; 3Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada; 4Imaging, Robarts Research Insitute, London, ON, Canada; 5Diabetes and Metabolism, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, ON, Canada
We have investigated the application of gene-based contrast from overexpression of iron binding proteins, in tracking cancer cell growth using MRI. Here we compare expression of modified ferritin subunits (HF+LF), lacking iron response elements (1), with that of MagA, an iron transporter from magnetotactic bacteria (2), in a preclinical model of human cancer. These studies describe the relative potential of engineered tumor cells to differentiate in vivo and provide suitable contrast for MRI.