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- 2019
Monitoring of impaired phagocytic function of Kupffer cells in an obstructive cholangitis rat model using superparamagnetic iron oxide MRI and contrastKeywords: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound,superparamagnetic iron oxide-enhanced MRI,Kupffer cells,obstructive cholangitis,animal study Abstract: Kupffer cells (KC) have an important role in the host defense in obstructive cholangitis. Non-invasive monitoring of phagocytic function of KC is pivotal. Several studies showed the possibility of non-invasive monitoring of phagocytic function of KC using superparamagnetic iron oxide-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (SPIO-MRI) or contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS). To investigate the serial change of KC function using SPIO-MRI and CEUS and whether the SPIO-MRI parameter correlates with the CEUS parameter in obstructive cholangitis rat models. With our institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approval, 19 rats (common bile duct ligation [CBDL]: n?=?9; control: n?=?10) underwent SPIO-MRI and CEUS at baseline, two, and four weeks after CBDL. The relative signal loss (RSL) of T2* value on SPIO-MRI and Kupffer phase parenchymal echogenicity (KPE) on CEUS were measured. The correlation between SPIO-MRI and CEUS parameters were compared with KC count. In CBDL group, RSL and KPE had significantly decreased (72.1% to 29.5%, 2.7 to 0.4) at four weeks compared with those in the control group (68.2% to 58.3%, 2.5 to 3.0, P?<?0.05). During the follow-up period, RSL showed significantly positive correlations with KPE (P?=?0.007). In addition, at four weeks, we found RSL was positively correlated with KPE (ρ?=?0.750, P?=?0.002). KC count was negatively correlated to RSL and KPE at four weeks (ρ?=??0.771, P?=?0.001 and ρ?=??0.644, P?=?0.013). SPIO-MRI and CEUS may be equally useful for monitoring the serial changes of KC phagocytic function in vivo
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