Molecular Imaging: A Promising Tool to Monitor Islet Transplantation
Figure 3
(a) Representative in vivo MRI of islet transplantation showing MN-siCaspase-3-treated islets implanted under the left kidney (inset) and parental MN-treated islets implanted under the right kidney. The dark area outlined under both kidney capsules represents the labeled grafts (day 3 shown). (b) Semiquantitative assessment of the relative changes in graft volumes revealed protective effect in MN-siCaspase-3-labeled grafts (*day 7, ; **day 14, ). (c) Fluorescence microscopy revealed higher expression of insulin and lower expression of caspase-3 in MN-siCaspase-3-treated grafts compared with MN-labeled islet grafts on the 14th day after-transplantation (Tx) (green, insulin; red, cleaved caspase-3; blue, DAPI nuclear stain) (magnification bar = 50 mm). (d): TUNEL assay on insulin-stained sections confirmed lower apoptotic rate and higher insulin expression in islets treated with MN-siCaspase-3 compared with islets treated with MN on the 14th day post-Tx (red, insulin; green, TUNEL; blue, DAPI nuclear stain) (magnification bar = 50 μm), reproduced with permission from American Diabetes Association [91].
