Marie Poirier-Quinot1, Alain Luciani2,
Michael Levy3, Jean-Christophe Ginefri1, Nathalie
Luciani3, Vanessa Devaux2, Sylvie Manin2,
Eric Lancelot4, Luc Darrasse1, Claire Wilhelm3,
Florence Gazeau3
1U2R2M - UMR 8081 CNRS/Univ Paris Sud,
Orsay, France; 2INSERM U841, Hpital Henri Mondor, Crteil,
France; 3UMR 7057 CNRS/Univ Paris - Diderot, France; 4Guerbet
Recherche, Roissy, France
It
has been recently shown that obesity-associated inflammation is related to
the recruitment of pro-inflammatory macrophages. The present work
investigates the feasibility to detect in-vivo macrophages in a murine model
of obesity using magnetic resonance microscopy following systemic injection
of a new kind of iron-oxide nanoparticles (USPIO). High-resolution 1.5 T MRI
combined with a superconducting surface coil and an improved USPIO, for
micrometric evaluation of fat tissue, appears to be an efficient way to
detect macrophages related to fat inflammation. This approach for the
follow-up of animals involved in therapeutic trials aimed at limiting fat
inflammation has great potential.