In Vivo Visualization of Pancreatic Islets in the Mouse

David Z. Balla¹, Sven Gottschalk¹, G Shajan¹, Sandra Ueberberg², Stephan Schneider², Rolf Pohmann¹, Jrn Engelmann¹

Detection of single pancreatic islets has many applications in diabetes research, but can be achieved in vivo with proton MRI only after transplantation of ex vivo labeled islets. Recently, successful visualization of islets in the excised mouse pancreas at 16.4T following i.v. injection of a novel beta-cell specific paramagnetic contrast agent was reported. Here we present the methodical optimization for in vivo experiments. Signal efficient 2D acquisition methods were considered. Best results were obtained with a two slice navigator based sequence. Single islets are visualized for the first time in vivo in mice after i.v. administration of a labeling agent.