Jelena M. Janjic1, Deepak K. Kadayakkara1, Lisa K. Pusateri1, Eric T. Ahrens1,2
1Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; 2Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
A novel, non-toxic 19F tracer reagent, perfluorotertbutylether (PFTE) nanoemulsion, suitable for ex vivo cell labeling and in vivo imaging is described. The feasibility of multi-spectral 19F MRI using PFTE and perfluoro-15-crown-5 ether (PCE) to visualize two cell populations in vivo is demonstrated. The development of the new PFTE nanoemulsion opens up the possibility to study immune cell-cell interactions in vivo using MRI.