Toshihiro Furuta1,2, Masayuki Yamaguchi1,
Ryutaro Nakagami1,3, Masaaki Akahane2, Manabu Minami4,
Kuni Ohtomo2, Hirofumi Fujii1
1Functional Imaging
Division, Research Center for Innovative Oncology, National Cancer Center
Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan; 2Department of Radiology, The
University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan; 3Graduate School of
Human Health Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan; 4Department
of Radiology, Tsukuba University Hospital, Tsukuba, Japan
We propose a new technique for the detection of liver damage based on the impaired exocytotic activity of Kupffer cells (KCs) using SPIO-enhanced MRI, in which SPIO was administered in advance of the liver damage. Our hypothesis is that if KCs are labeled with SPIO prior to liver damage, the exocytotic activity of KCs could be evaluated by the delayed recovery of hepatic signals suppressed by SPIO on T2*-weighted MRI. Our preliminary data using an animal model, in which KCs were damaged by the administration of gadolinium chloride, supported our hypothesis.
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