Li Liu1, Qing Ye1, Yijen L. Wu1,
Chih-Lung Chen2, Wen-Yuan Hsieh2, Hsin-Hsin Shen2,
T. Kevin Hitchens1, Brent Barbe1, Haosen Zhang1,
Shian-Jy Wang2, Chien Ho1
1Pittsburgh NMR Center for
Biomedical Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United
States; 2Material and Chemical Research Laboratory, Industrial
Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan
In this study, we develop a novel dual MRI-fluorescent contrast agent, which is a cationic nano-sized superparamagnetic iron oxide particle coated with polyethylene glycol, with high transverse relaxivity (around 250 s-1mM-1) and T-cell labeling efficiency (over 90%). Labeling of T-cells with ITRI-IOPC-NH2 does not perturbing T-cell functions. After i.v. injection of ITRI-IOPC-NH2labled-T-cells, localized hypointensity can be detected at the rejecting heart of a rodent transplantation model by in-vivo MRI and ex-vivo MRM.