Speaker : Hong, Kwan Soo (Principal Researcher, Korea Basic Science Institute) 

Date : 2012-01-17

Location : Room 103-01，Pharmacy Hall, Dankook University

Abstract : Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a widely used clinical diagnostic tool because it is non-invasive, provides contrast among soft tissues at high spatial resolution. Conventional MRI focuses almost exclusively on visualizing anatomy and has no specificity for any particular cell type. The 'probe' used in conventional MRI is the proton (1H) in mobile water molecules. New classes of exogenous MRI probes or reagents are needed to facilitate cell-specific imaging in living subjects. Elucidating the trafficking pathways of cells (immune and stem cells) in vivo, together with their migratory properties in relation to their differentiation and activation status, is useful for understanding how the immune system interacts with the related diseases. Methods based on tissue sampling to monitor immune responses are inadequate for repeatedly characterizing the responses of the immune system in different organs. A solution to this problem might come from molecular and cellular imaging - a branch of biomedical sciences that combines biotechnology and imaging methods to characterize, in vivo, the molecular and cellular processes involved in normal and pathologic states. The targeted cells are labeled with magnetic nano-particle-based multimodal contrast agents (CAs) in vivo or in vitro, which gives contrast where the labelled cells are. The CA-mediated in vivo molecular/cellular imaging provides new insights into the biology of cell trafficking and migration, in particular, the recruitment of immune cells into immune disease sites, and the longitudinal tracing of the transplanted cells homing to the disease sites.