Open AccessWhole-body tracking of single cells via positron emission tomography
Author(s) -
Kyung Oh Jung,
Tae Jin Kim,
Jung Ho Yu,
Siyeon Rhee,
Wei Zhao,
Byung Hang Ha,
Kristy Red-Horse,
Sanjiv S. Gambhir,
Guillem Pratx
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nature biomedical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.961
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 2157-846X
DOI - 10.1038/s41551-020-0570-5
Subject(s) - positron emission tomography , in vivo , kinetics , transplantation , flow cytometry , nuclear medicine , tomography , preclinical imaging , materials science , chemistry , biomedical engineering , biophysics , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , physics , biology , radiology , surgery , quantum mechanics
In vivo molecular imaging can measure the average kinetics and movement routes of injected cells through the body. However, owing to non-specific accumulation of the contrast agent and its efflux from the cells, most of these imaging methods inaccurately estimate the distribution of the cells. Here, we show that single human breast cancer cells loaded with mesoporous silica nanoparticles concentrating the 68 Ga radioisotope and injected into immunodeficient mice can be tracked in real time from the pattern of annihilation photons detected using positron emission tomography, with respect to anatomical landmarks derived from X-ray computed tomography. The cells travelled at an average velocity of 50 mm s -1 and arrested in the lungs 2-3 s after tail-vein injection into the mice, which is consistent with the blood-flow rate. Single-cell tracking could be used to determine the kinetics of cell trafficking and arrest during the earliest phase of the metastatic cascade, the trafficking of immune cells during cancer immunotherapy and the distribution of cells after transplantation.