Abstract
The (1)H MR signal arising from flowing extracellular media in a perfused, microbead-adherent cultured cell system can be suppressed with a slice-selective, spin-echo pulse sequence. The signal from intracellular water can, thus, be selectively monitored. Herein, this technique was combined with pulsed field gradients (PFGs) to quantify intracellular water diffusion in HeLa cells. The intracellular water MR diffusion-signal attenuation at various diffusion times was well described by a biophysical model that characterizes the incoherent displacement of intracellular water as a truncated Gaussian distribution of apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs). At short diffusion times, the water "free" diffusion coefficient and the surface-to-volume ratio of HeLa cells were estimated and were, 2.0 +/- 0.3 microm(2)/ms and 0.48 +/- 0.1 microm(-1) (mean +/- SD), respectively. At long diffusion times, the cell radius of 10.1 +/- 0.4 microm was inferred and was consistent with that measured by optical microscopy. In summary: 1) intracellular water "free" diffusion in HeLa cells was rapid, two-thirds that of pure water; and 2) the cell radius inferred from modeling the incoherent displacement of intracellular water by a truncated Gaussian distribution of ADCs was confirmed by independent optical microscopy measures.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.