Yanfeng Meng1,2, Feng Zhang1,
Tiffany Blair1, Huidong Gu1, Hongqing Feng1,
Jinnan Wang3, Chun Yuan1, Zhaoqi Zhang2,
Bensheng Qiu1, Xiaoming Yang1
1Radiology, University of Washington,
Seattle, WA, United States; 2Radiology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital,
Beijing, China; 3Clinical Sites Research Program, Philips Research
North America, Briarcliff Manor, NY, United States
This
study was to validate the feasibility of using clinical 3.0T MRI to monitor
the migration of auto-transplanted bone marrow cells (BMC) to the injured
arteries of near-human-sized animals. BMCs were extracted endogenously,
labeled with Feridex and/or PKH26, and then auto-transplanted back to the
same animal. Post-cell transplantation 3.0T T2-MRI showed Feridex-created MR
signal voids along the injured iliofemoral artery segments, which were not
seen in the control arteries. Histology, including Prussian blue and dextran
immunofluorescent staining as well as PKH26 fluorescence, confirmed the MRI
findings. This study establishes groundwork for clinical 3.0T MRI of
cell-based repair of injured arteries.