Heteronuclear Proton MRI: in vivo Detection of Tm-DOTMA Labeled HT-1080 Cells Using Ultra-Short Echo Time Imaging (UTE)

Klaus Strobel¹, Rabecca Schmidt¹, Carsten Hltke¹, Cornelius Faber¹

Unambiguous MRI detection of labeled cells often uses ¹⁹F, because fluorine has no natural background in the images. However, ¹⁹F MRI requires dedicated hardware. Alternatively, Tm-DOTMA, which has twelve methyl protons with a chemical shift of 100 ppm, may be used to obtain background free proton images. In this work, we have implemented an ultra-short echo time (UTE) imaging sequences to obtain optimal SNR-efficiency with labeled HT-1080 cells that were injected subcutaneously into the flank of mice. We show that Tm-DOTMA labeled cells can be imaged in vivo without significant water background signal.