Yajie Liang1,2,
Amnon Bar-Shir1,2, Xiaolei Song1,2, Assaf A. Gilad1,2,
Jeff W. M. Bulte1,2, Piotr Walczak1,2
1Division of MR
Research, Russell H. Morgan Dept. of Radiology , the Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2Cellular Imaging Section,
Institute for Cell Engineering, the Johns Hopkins University School of
Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) MRI was used to monitor hydrogel scaffold that is now widely applied in encapsulation of stem cells for transplantation studies. By correlating bioluminescent imaging and histological results, we demonstrated that changes in CEST signals in vivo over time could allow monitoring molecular gel composition and potentially provide new insights on mechanism underlying cell migration in scaffold after transplantation. Along with the increasing use of biomaterials encapsulating stem cells in regenerative medicine, CEST MRI could be a valuable tool in investigation of dynamic changes in scaffold materials in the context of cell transplantation in vivo.