A novel (19)F agent for detection and quantification of human dendritic cells using magnetic resonance imaging

• Published in: International journal of cancer Vol. 129; no. 2; pp. 365 - 373
• Main Authors: Bonetto, Fernando, Srinivas, Mangala, Heerschap, Arend, Mailliard, Robbie, Ahrens, Eric T, Figdor, Carl G, de Vries, I Jolanda M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 15.07.2011
• Subjects: Cancer Vaccines; Cell Count; Cell Movement; Contrast Media; Dendritic Cells - immunology; Dendritic Cells - physiology; Feasibility Studies; Fluorine; Fluorocarbons; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
• ISSN: 1097-0215
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.25672

Monitoring of cell therapeutics in vivo is of major importance to estimate its efficacy. Here, we present a novel intracellular label for (19)F magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based cell tracking, which allows for noninvasive, longitudinal cell tracking without the use of radioisotopes. A key advantage of (19)F MRI is that it allows for absolute quantification of cell numbers directly from the MRI data. The (19)F label was tested in primary human monocyte-derived dendritic cells. These cells took up label effectively, resulting in a labeling of 1.7 ± 0.1 × 10(13) (19)F atoms per cell, with a viability of 80 ± 6%, without the need for electroporation or transfection agents. This results in a minimum detection sensitivity of about 2,000 cells/voxel at 7 T, comparable with gadolinium-labeled cells. Comparison of the detection sensitivity of cells labeled with (19)F, iron oxide and gadolinium over typical tissue background showed that unambiguous detection of the (19)F-labeled cells was simpler than with the contrast agents. The effect of the (19)F agent on cell function was minimal in the context of cell-based vaccines. From these data, we calculate that detection of 30,000 cells in vivo at 3 T with a reasonable signal to noise ratio for (19)F images would require less than 30 min with a conventional fast spin echo sequence, given a coil similar to the one used in this study. This is well within acceptable limits for clinical studies, and thus, we conclude that (19)F MRI for quantitative cell tracking in a clinical setting has great potential.