Monitoring ferumoxide-labelled neural progenitor cells and lesion evolution by magnetic resonance imaging in a model of cell transplantation in cerebral ischaemia

Efficacy of neural stem/progenitor cell (NPC) therapies after cerebral ischaemia could be better evaluated by monitoring in vivo migration and distribution of cells post-engraftment in parallel with analysis of lesion volume and functional recovery. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is ideally placed to achieve this, but still poses several challenges. We show that combining the ferumoxide MRI contrast agent Endorem with protamine sulphate (FePro) improves iron oxide uptake in cells compared to Endorem alone and is non-toxic. Hence FePro complex is a better contrast agent than Endorem for monitoring NPCs. FePro complex-labelled NPCs proliferated and differentiated normally in vitro, and upon grafting into the brain 48 hours post-ischaemia they were detected in vivo by MRI. Imaging over four weeks showed the development of a confounding endogenous hypointense contrast evolution at later timepoints within the lesioned tissue. This was at least partly due to accumulation within the lesion of macrophages and endogenous iron. Neither significant NPC migration, assessed by MRI and histologically, nor a reduction in the ischaemic lesion volume was observed in NPC-grafted brains. Crucially, while MRI provides reliable information on engrafted cell location early after an ischaemic insult, pathophysiological changes to ischaemic lesions can interfere with cellular imaging at later timepoints.