Differentiation Between Apoptotic and Non-Apoptotic Cell Death Using Diffusion-Weighted MR

Sato Eida¹, Marc Van Cauteren², Yuka Hotokezaka¹, Makoto Obara², Tomoaki Okuaki², Ikuo Katayama¹, Miho Sasaki¹, Misa Sumi¹, Takashi Nakamura¹

The area and integrity of the plasma membranes, as quantified by the total CPL, are critical determinants of the diffusion characteristics on the cellular level. The evolution over time of the ADC values is characteristic of whether the cells die via apoptotic or non-apoptotic (necrotic) pathway. Therefore, this can be used as a cancer biomarker for differentiating between different pathways of cell death, e.g. in testing the effects of cancer drugs in vitro.