Abstract #0208

Non-Invasive Monitoring of Human Dendritic Cell Migration in the CB17 Scid Mouse by Cellular MRI

Gregory A. Dekaban¹, Xizhong Zhang², Vasiliki Economopoulos³, Jennifer Noad³, Roja Rohani³, Adele Wang⁴, Megan Levings⁴, Ronan Foley⁵, Paula Foster³

¹BioTherapeutics Research Laboratory, Robarts Research Institute, London , Ontario, Canada; ²BioTherapeutics Research Laboratory, Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; ³Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute; ⁴Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia; ⁵Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University

The successful migration of adequate numbers of in vitro-generated human dendritic cells (DC) from the site of injection to a draining lymph node is a necessary and crucial step in order for a DC-based vaccine to be a successful immunotherapy for cancer and infectious disease. Currently, less than 5% of injected DC migrate to a draining lymph node. How well a preparation of DC migrates is best assessed by conducting migration assays in vivo. Here we demonstrated that migration of human DC labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can be tracked to lymph nodes of CB17 scid mice.