Quantitative MRI Reporter Gene Imaging of the Recruitment of Ferritin Over-Expressing Fibroblasts to the Vascular Niche of Solid Tumors

Moriel Vandsburger¹, Marina Radoul¹, Yoseph Addadi¹, Senzeni Mpofu¹, Batya Cohen¹, Michal Neeman¹

We used over-expression of ferritin heavy chain (FHC) as an MRI reporter gene in CV-1 fibroblasts. The recruitment of FHC over-expressing fibroblasts to ovarian cancer tumors was quantitatively examined using bi-exponential modeling in order to determine the cell fraction of FHC over-expressing cells within a mixed cell population. In addition, mapping of fractional blood volume revealed preferential recruitment of FHC over-expressing fibroblasts to the vascular niche of growing tumors.