Jeremy J. Flint1,2, Choong-Heon Lee2,3, Brian Hansen4, Michael Fey5, Daniel Schmidig5, Jonathan D. Bui6, Michael A. King7, Peter Vestergaard-Poulsen4, Stephen J. Blackband1,8
1Neuroscience, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; 2McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; 3Electrical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; 4Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark; 5Bruker Biospin AG, Switzerland; 6Neurosciences, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA; 7Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; 8National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Contemporary MR methods used to determine cellular position and perform compartment-specific quantitative measurements depend on exogenous contrast agents (such as manganese, gadolinium, or SPIO particles) and often require inferences to be made due to resolution limitations. In the present study, we presentto our knowledgethe first MR microscopy images of individual mammalian cells ever recorded using endogenous contrast mechanisms with accompanying correlative histology. Not only does this study show that soft-tissue contrast exists between cells and the surrounding extracellular space, but opens the door to subsequent studies in which mammalian cell physiology may be studied directly using MR analysis.
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