Valeria Righi1,2, Ali M. Rad3,
Dionyssios Mintzopoulos1, Alan J. Fischman4, A Aria
Tzika1,2
1NMR Surgical Laboratory, Department of
Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital and Shriners Burns Institute, Harvard
Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; 2Department of
Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Athinoula
A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, United States; 3Division
of Burn, Shriners Burn Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United
States; 4Division of Burn, Shriners Burns Institute, Harvard
Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Recently,
the interest in noninvasive novel methods for molecular imaging using MRI of
clinically relevant mouse models using super-paramagnetic iron-oxide (SPIO)
nanoparticles as contrast agents has increased. SPIO nanoparticles are
commonly used to label cells for cellular imaging. Several methods to
generate positive contrast of magnetically labeled cells have been suggested.
The scope of this study was to track label stem cells in a burn mouse model
using noninvasive positive-contrast MRI methods in vivo. The results have
direct implications for monitoring labeled stem cells during wound healing.