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Visualization of immune cell infiltration in experimental viral myocarditis by 19F MRI in vivo

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Abstract

Objective

This paper introduces a new approach permitting for the first time a specific, non-invasive diagnosis of myocarditis by visualizing the infiltration of immune cells into the myocardium.

Materials and methods

The feasibility of this approach is shown in a murine model of viral myocarditis. Our study uses biochemically inert perfluorocarbons (PFCs) known to be taken up by circulating monocytes/macrophages after intravenous injection.

Results

In vivo 19F MRI at 9.4 T demonstrated that PFC-loaded immune cells infiltrate into inflamed myocardial areas. Because of the lack of any fluorine background in the body, detected 19F signals of PFCs are highly specific as confirmed ex vivo by flow cytometry and histology.

Conclusion

Since PFCs are a family of compounds previously used clinically as blood substitutes, the technique described in our paper holds the potential as a new imaging modality for the diagnosis of myocarditis in man.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by the Sonderforschungsbereich 612 (JS, UF) and Transregio 19 (RK, KK), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grant SCHR 154/13-1 (JS), and the BMBF grant 01EZ0817 (RK, KK).

Note added in proof

While this paper was under review, we became aware of an independent study by van Heeswijk et al. [20] which used a similar 19F MRI approach for in vivo visualization of immune cell infiltration in a murine model of autoimmune myocarditis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Cardiology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Christoph Jacoby, Nadine Borg, Florian Bönner, Jürgen Schrader & Ulrich Flögel

  2. Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Moorenstraße 5, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Philipp Heusch

  3. Department of Molecular Pathology, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Liebermeisterstr. 8, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Martina Sauter, Reinhard Kandolf & Karin Klingel

Authors
  1. Christoph Jacoby
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  2. Nadine Borg
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  3. Philipp Heusch
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  4. Martina Sauter
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  5. Florian Bönner
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  6. Reinhard Kandolf
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  7. Karin Klingel
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  8. Jürgen Schrader
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  9. Ulrich Flögel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulrich Flögel.

Electronic supplementary material

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10334_2013_391_MOESM1_ESM.mpg

Supplemental Movie 1: Reconstruction of a murine heart from isotropic high resolution 3D 1H and 19F MR data sets (voxel size 0.125 nl) confirmed the prevalent confinement of the 19F signal to the left ventricular wall in CVB3-induced myocarditis. Contours of the heart and left/right chambers (green) were reconstructed from 1H MRI and overlayed by volume rendered anatomic corresponding 19F data (red). (MPG 7382 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (PPTX 972 kb)

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Jacoby, C., Borg, N., Heusch, P. et al. Visualization of immune cell infiltration in experimental viral myocarditis by 19F MRI in vivo. Magn Reson Mater Phy 27, 101–106 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-013-0391-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-013-0391-6

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