Glioma Cells Transfected with the Gene Mms6 Produce a Strong Increase in Transverse Relaxivity In Vitro

Brenda Robledo¹, Xiaoyong Zhang¹, Steve Harris¹, Xiaoping Hu¹

The gene mms6, originally identified in magnetotactic bacteria, expresses a protein thought to initiate magnetite crystal formation inside specialized organelles. Genetic loss-of-function studies suggest the protein also regulates the size of the iron-oxide crystals. We hypothesized that cells transfected with mms6 would store increased levels of iron and thereby produce MR contrast. In Vitro, we found that mms6 positive glioma cells stored 2.8 times more iron than control cells and also showed a 90.6% increase in transverse relaxivity at 9.4 Tesla compared to control cells. Our results suggest that mms6 may function as an MR reporter gene in cancer studies.