Esmaeel Reza Dadashzadeh1, 2, L. Henry Bryant Jr. 3, Dana D. Dean1, Bobbi Lewis1, Joseph A. Frank1, 4
1Frank Laboratory, Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States; 2Howard Hughes Medical Scholar, Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States; 3Laboratory of Diagnostic Radiology Research, Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health; 4Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health
A straight-forward method has been developed to label cells with self-assembling nanocomplexes (NC) that form by combining three FDA-approved agents: ferumoxytol (F), heparin (H) or fragmin (Fr), and protamine sulfate (P). HPF or FrPF NC self-assemble and flocculate over time and can be isolated by lyophilization to form solid NC. Lyophilization appears to stabilize NC based on the dynamic polydispersion profile (size and PDI) over the time-course of 24h. Intracerebrally implanted HPFL-labelled neural stem cells migrated to growing metastatic breast cancer in rat brain demonstrating the utility of this family of NC to label cells for use in cellular MRI.