Transplanted Endothelial Progenitor Cells Improve Ischemia Muscle Regeneration in Mice by Diffusion Tensor MR Imaging

Figure 5

In vivo ischemic muscle regeneration effect of EPCs by MR-DTI. (a): Representative DWI at 1, 3, 7, 21, and 28 days in ischemic gastrocnemius muscles in control media injected and EPCs transplanted mice (high signal in DWI indicated diffusion restriction, white arrowhead). A bar graph (b) showed that administration of EPCs significantly reduced the region of edema at day 14 after EPCs transplantation. (c) Representative pixel maps of FA at 1, 7, 14, and 21 days (red circle). Line graphs showed that ADC (d), FA (e), λ1 (f), λ2 (g), and λ3 (h) of EPCs transplantation improved better than that of control group at days 7 and 14 after ischemia. (i) Representative fiber tracking maps at 1, 3, 7, and 28 days. The fiber counts (j) in ischemic gastrocnemius muscles at day 28 after EPCs transplantation were more than those of control group. , , and .