Labeling and Detection of Marrow Drived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Emidio Tarulli, Master of Health Science,

Graduate Department of the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering
University of Toronto 2008

ABSTRACT
Stem cell therapies hold great promise for diseases such as stroke, where few effective treatment options exist. Clinical translation of experimental stem cell therapies requires the ability to monitor delivery and behaviour of cells noninvasively in-vivo with clinical imaging modalities such as MRI. This thesis presents the translation of established methods for labelling and imaging stem cells with specialized MRI systems to a more clinically relevant setting. 

A methodology for harvesting and labelling a cell population containing stem cells with iron oxide for detection with a clinical MRI system is presented and single cell detection is demonstrated in-vitro. The feasibility of detecting iron oxide labelled stem cells intravenously delivered in a rat model of stroke is tested. Results demonstratethat while MRI is highly sensitive to the presence and distribution of iron oxide containing cells in-vivo, the true origin of thse cells remains ambiguous with the current methodology.

ACADEMIC BIOGRAPHY

Emidio Tarulli is this year's recipient of the ITHC Thesis award in the Clinical Biomedical Engineering Program in the Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering at the University of Toronto.  He began the program in September of 2006 after completing a BASc in Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering at UofT. Emidio Tarulli's courses and internships focused on medical imaging and its application towards guided therapeutics. He will be attending medical school in September  2008.