Abstract #0561

A Novel Strategy to Track Short-Term Stem Cell Viability and Integration Using Diffusion-Activated MRI Contrast Agents in a Murine Model of Radiation-Induced Cognitive Dysfunction

Ethel Ngen¹, Lee Wang¹, Yoshinori Kato¹, Nishant Gandhi², Balaji Krishnamachary¹, Barbara Smith³, Wenlian Zhu¹, Micheal Armour², John Wong², Zaver M. Bhujwalla⁴, Katheleen Gabrielson⁵, Dmitri Artemov¹

¹Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ²Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ³Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁴Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁵Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States

Given the limited regenerative ability of the central nervous system, several stem cell-based therapies are currently being investigated to repair brain damage. In order to effectively manage these therapeutic regimes, there is a need for non-invasive and clinically translatable imaging strategies capable of tracking the engraftment and survival of transplanted stem cells with high resolutions. In this study, we non-invasively monitored the viability and homing of transplanted stem cells in mice, using a dual-labeled MRI contrast strategy. Furthermore, an image-guided radiation-induced murine model of cognitive dysfunction was developed to assess the efficiency of the MR activation strategy in vivo.