Dendritic cells (DCs) play an important role in atherosclerosis plaque formation, but the mechanism has not been elucidated clearly. This study is designed to establish a method for tracing DCs in vivo facilitating the investigation of the DCs’ specific roles in atherosclerosis. Rabbit DCs labeled by different concentrations of ultra small superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) were injected into atherosclerosis rabbit model and traced with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Results showed that USPIO labeling nearly have no cytotoxicity to DCs in low concentrations (<500 µg/mL) but induced some decrease of cell viability at high concentrations (>500 µg/mL). Moreover, USPIO labeling, from 200 to 2000 µg/mL, caused a dose-dependent decrease of the mitochondrial membrane potential in DCs. The high labeling concentration (2000 µg/mL) triggered necrosis instead of apoptosis in DCs. By T2WI and fs T2WI sequence imaging comparison, DCs were found to exist in rabbit abdominal artery plaques after 24 h of transplantation and in spleen after one week detected by Prussian blue staining of tissue sections. We concluded that about 200 µg/mL USPIO is ideal to effectively label DCs for MRI tracing in vivo without a threat to cell viability. Combining USPIO labeling and MRI to track the movement of injected DCs in vivo is a feasible method.
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