title: MRI of intravenously injected bone marrow cells homing to the site of injured arteries.
abstract: The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of using MRI to detect magnetically labeled, intravenously injected bone marrow (BM) cells homing to injured arteries. In the first phase, BM cells from LacZ-transgenic or green fluorescent protein (GFP)-transgenic mice were transplanted into eight recipient mice. The left femoral arteries of recipient mice were injured using a cuff-constriction or endothelium-damage approach, and the right femoral arteries were uninjured to serve as controls. The location and distribution of migrated LacZ-BM or GFP-BM cells were confirmed with histology. In the second phase, BM-derived cells from LacZ-transgenic mice were labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide (Feridex) and then transplanted into eight recipient mice with cuff-induced injuries in the left femoral arteries. Migrated Feridex/LacZ-BM cells were monitored in vivo using a 4.7 T MR scanner. Subsequently, high-resolution ex vivo MRI was performed on 9.4 T and 11.7 T. LacZ-positive or GFP-positive cells in the thickened adventitia of the injured arteries were evident on histology. Both in vivo and ex vivo MRI showed larger regions of hypointensity with Feridex-labeled cells at the sites of the injured arteries compared with control arteries (P < 0.01). This study provides initial evidence that may support the potential use of MRI to detect homing of intravenously injected BM cells to injured arteries.
authors.affiliation: The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Fabao
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Sourav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kar
authors.forename: Jiangyang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Bensheng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Walczak
authors.forename: Malika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Larabi
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frost
authors.forename: Zhiping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Jeff W M
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Bulte
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000473:pathology*; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002465:Cell Movement; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D008866:Microsurgery; D023421:Models, Animal
chemical_list: D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins