Nature Medicine 12, 144 – 148 (2005)
Published online: 25 December 2005; | doi:10.1038/nm1316
In vivo imaging of islet transplantation
Natalia V Evgenov1, 3, Zdravka Medarova1, 3, Guangping Dai1, Susan Bonner-Weir2
& Anna Moore1
1
Molecular Imaging Laboratory, MGH/MIT/HMS Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Room 2301, Building 149, 13th Street, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA.
2
Joslin Diabetes Center, 1 Joslin Place, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
3
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence should be addressed to Anna Moore [email protected]
Type 1 diabetes mellitus is characterized by the selective destruction of insulin-producing beta cells, which leads to a deficiency in insulin secretion and, as a result, to hyperglycemia. At present, transplantation of pancreatic islets is an emerging and promising clinical modality, which can render individuals with type 1 diabetes insulin independent without increasing the incidence of hypoglycemic events. To monitor transplantation efficiency and graft survival, reliable noninvasive imaging methods are needed. If such methods were introduced into the clinic, essential information could be obtained repeatedly and noninvasively. Here we report on the in vivo detection of transplanted human pancreatic islets using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that allowed noninvasive monitoring of islet grafts in diabetic mice in real time. We anticipate that the information obtained in this study would ultimately result in the ability to detect and monitor islet engraftment in humans, which would greatly aid the clinical management of this disease.
|
