Longitudinal Cell Tracking and Simultaneous Monitoring of Tissue Regeneration after Cell Treatment of Natural Tendon Disease by Low-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Figure 6

Exemplary transverse -weighted gradient echo images of a tendon lesion in which labelled cells could not be discriminated until week 8, before (A) and directly after injection of labelled cells (B) and after 8 weeks (C). The image obtained before injection displays the tendon lesion as well as adjacent hypointense tendon fibres (white arrows). Directly after injection, the hypointense artefacts induced by the labelled cells are clearly visible as additional hypointense areas (grey arrows). After 8 weeks, it was not possible to discriminate these hypointense artefacts from the adjacent hypointense tendon fibers anymore.