Enabling X-ray fluorescence imaging for in vivo immune cell tracking

The infiltration of immune cells into sites of inflammation is one key feature of immune mediated inflammatory diseases. A detailed assessment of the in vivo dynamics of relevant cell subtypes could booster the understanding of this disease and the development of novel therapies. We show in detail how advanced X-ray fluorescence imaging enables such quantitative in vivo cell tracking, offering solutions that could pave the way beyond what other imaging modalities provide today. The key for this achievement is a detailed study of the spectral background contribution from multiple Compton scattering in a mouse-scaled object when this is scanned with a monochromatic pencil X-ray beam from a synchrotron. Under optimal conditions, the detection sensitivity is sufficient for detecting local accumulations of the labelled immune cells, hence providing experimental demonstration of in vivo immune cell tracking in mice.