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Quantification of Iron-Labeled Cells with Positive Contrast in Mouse Brains

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Abstract

Purpose

To quantify small amounts of iron-labeled cells in mouse brains with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Procedures

Iron-labeled cells (from 500 to 7,500) were stereotaxically transplanted into the brain of living mice that were subsequently imaged with MRI at 4.7 T. We compared four quantitative methods: (1) T2 relaxometry, (2) T2* relaxometry, (3) the volume of the cloverleaf hypointense artifact generated on T2*-weighted images, and (4) the volume of the cloverleaf hyperintense artifact generated on positive contrast images.

Results

The methods based on relaxometry, whether T2 or T2*, did not correlate with the number of injected cells. By contrast, those based on measurement of cloverleaf artifact volume, whether using negative or positive enhancement, showed a significant linear relationship for the given range of cells (R [0.92–0.95], p < 0.05).

Conclusions

T2* artifact volume imaging (negative or positive) appears promising for the quantification of magnetically labeled cells following focal injection in the brain.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the ANR TecSan (INFLAM). The authors thank Christine Ménager of CNRS UMR 7612 (Paris, France) for kindly providing the AMNP contrast agent and Loic Boussel of CNRS UMR 5220 for his help with statistics.

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lyon, Lyon 1, Lyon, 69003, France

    Jean-Christophe Brisset, Monica Sigovan, Fabien Chauveau, Adrien Riou, Emilie Devillard, Virginie Desestret, Monique Touret, Serge Nataf, J. Honnorat, Emmanuelle Canet-Soulas, Norbert Nighoghossian, Yves Berthezene & Marlene Wiart

  2. CNRS, UMR 5220; Inserm, U 630, Insa de Lyon; Creatis-LRMN, Bron, 69677, France

    Jean-Christophe Brisset, Monica Sigovan, Fabien Chauveau, Adrien Riou, Virginie Desestret, Emmanuelle Canet-Soulas, Norbert Nighoghossian, Yves Berthezene & Marlene Wiart

  3. Inserm U842, NeuroOncologie and NeuroInflammation, Lyon, 69372, France

    Emilie Devillard, Monique Touret, Serge Nataf & J. Honnorat

  4. Laboratoire Creatis-LRMN CNRS-UMR 5220-U 630 Inserm, Service de radiologie (B13), Hopital Neuro-Cardiologique, 28, avenue du Doyen LEPINE, 69677, Bron Cedex, France

    Marlene Wiart

Authors
  1. Jean-Christophe Brisset
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  2. Monica Sigovan
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  3. Fabien Chauveau
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  4. Adrien Riou
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  5. Emilie Devillard
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  6. Virginie Desestret
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  7. Monique Touret
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  8. Serge Nataf
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  9. J. Honnorat
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  10. Emmanuelle Canet-Soulas
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  11. Norbert Nighoghossian
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  12. Yves Berthezene
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  13. Marlene Wiart
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marlene Wiart.

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Brisset, JC., Sigovan, M., Chauveau, F. et al. Quantification of Iron-Labeled Cells with Positive Contrast in Mouse Brains. Mol Imaging Biol 13, 672–678 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-010-0402-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-010-0402-1

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