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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Jul 3.
Published in final edited form as: Expert Rev Anticancer Ther. 2009 May;9(5):597–612. doi: 10.1586/era.09.22

Figure 2. MSCs labeled with SPIO injected into intracranial glioma-bearing mice.

Figure 2

The SPIO-labeled MSCs migrate towards the area of the brain containing the tumor. This modification of MSCs and the idea that MSCs home in on tumor cells allow for another way to image brain tumors and the extent of tumor infiltration into normal brain parenchyma. More importantly, it allows for the surveillance of the location of the therapeutic stem cells. Such labeling will be important in future therapies because it will allow clinicians to know whether the therapeutic stem cells have positioned themselves in a location that will be effective for the treatment of the tumor bulk and microsatellites.

MSC: Mesenchymal stem cell; SPIO: Superparamagnetic iron oxide.