Darwin S. Gao1,2, Mingqian Tan3,
Jerry S. Cheung1,2, April M. Chow1,2, Shu Juan Fan1,2,
Kannie W.Y. Chan1,2, Kwan Man4, Zheng-Rong Lu3,
Ed X. Wu1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and
Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR,
China; 2Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The
University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China; 3Department
of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, United
States; 4Department of Surgery, The University of Hong Kong,
Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR, China
Liver
fibrosis, associated with chronic liver injury, including hepatitis and
alcohol intoxication, can progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
It is characterized by an increased amount of extracellular matrix consisting
of fibril-forming collagens and matrix glycoconjugates such as fibronectin
The fibrin-fibronectin complexes in fibrotic liver, resulted from
cross-linkage between fibrin/fibrinogen and fibronectin, may serve as a
specific molecular target for contrast-enhanced MRI. Our preliminary results
demonstrated that a fibrin-fibronectin targeted Gd contrast agent provided
distinct contrast enhancement in fibrotic liver, as compared with a
non-targeted Gd contrast agent, in an experimental model.