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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 May 4.
Published in final edited form as: Prog Nucl Magn Reson Spectrosc. 2009 Jul;55(1):61–77. doi: 10.1016/j.pnmrs.2008.11.002

Fig. 6.

Fig. 6

Serial MR detection of gadolinium-labeled pancreatic islets transplanted within the kidney capsule of immunodeficient mice. GdHDPO3A-labeled islets (white arrows) were detected at day 7 (A), day 30 (B), and day 65 (C) after transplantation into the kidney capsule. The number of enhanced pixels remained stable for one month and then declined steadily during the following month (D). Immunofluorescence (E) and histological (F) staining on day 65 demonstrate that the islet graft (I) was intact within the subcapsular space and distinct from kidney tubules (K). This study demonstrates that the neutral, hydrophilic contrast agent, GdHDPO3A, is well tolerated for long-term MR detection of nonproliferating cells following transplantation. In addition, this study shows how positive contrast using Gd can be applied to track cells in inherently T2 dark tissues, where iron oxides are less easily detected. Reproduced, with permission, from Ref. [94].