Utility of 1.5 Tesla MRI Scanner in the Management of Small Sample Sizes Driven from 3D Breast Cell Culture

Wiesław Guz; Rafał Podgórski; David Aebisher; Adrian Truszkiewicz; Agnieszka Machorowska-Pieniążek; Grzegorz Cieślar; Aleksandra Kawczyk-Krupka; Dorota Bartusik-Aebisher

doi:10.3390/ijms25053009

Utility of 1.5 Tesla MRI Scanner in the Management of Small Sample Sizes Driven from 3D Breast Cell Culture

Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Mar 5;25(5):3009. doi: 10.3390/ijms25053009.

Authors

Wiesław Guz¹, Rafał Podgórski², David Aebisher³, Adrian Truszkiewicz³, Agnieszka Machorowska-Pieniążek⁴, Grzegorz Cieślar⁵, Aleksandra Kawczyk-Krupka⁵, Dorota Bartusik-Aebisher²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Diagnostic Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Medical College of the University of Rzeszow, 35-310 Rzeszów, Poland.
² Department of Biochemistry and General Chemistry, Medical College of the University of Rzeszow, 35-310 Rzeszów, Poland.
³ Department of Photomedicine and Physical Chemistry, Medical College of the University of Rzeszow, 35-310 Rzeszów, Poland.
⁴ Department of Orthodontics, Faculty of Medical Sciences in Zabrze, Medical University of Silesia, 40-055 Katowice, Poland.
⁵ Department of Internal Diseases, Angiology and Physical Medicine, Centre for Laser Diagnostics and Therapy, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Batorego 15, 41-902 Bytom, Poland.

Abstract

The aim of this work was to use and optimize a 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system for three-dimensional (3D) images of small samples obtained from breast cell cultures in vitro. The basis of this study was to design MRI equipment to enable imaging of MCF-7 breast cancer cell cultures (about 1 million cells) in 1.5 and 2 mL glass tubes and/or bioreactors with an external diameter of less than 20 mm. Additionally, the development of software to calculate longitudinal and transverse relaxation times is described. Imaging tests were performed using a clinical MRI scanner OPTIMA 360 manufactured by GEMS. Due to the size of the tested objects, it was necessary to design additional receiving circuits allowing for the study of MCF-7 cell cultures placed in glass bioreactors. The examined sample's volume did not exceed 2.0 mL nor did the number of cells exceed 1 million. This work also included a modification of the sequence to allow for the analysis of T₁ and T₂ relaxation times. The analysis was performed using the MATLAB package (produced by MathWorks). The created application is based on medical MR images saved in the DICOM3.0 standard which ensures that the data analyzed are reliable and unchangeable in an unintentional manner that could affect the measurement results. The possibility of using 1.5 T MRI systems for cell culture research providing quantitative information from in vitro studies was realized. The scanning resolution for FOV = 5 cm and the matrix was achieved at a level of resolution of less than 0.1 mm/pixel. Receiving elements were built allowing for the acquisition of data for MRI image reconstruction confirmed by images of a phantom with a known structure and geometry. Magnetic resonance sequences were modified for the saturation recovery (SR) method, the purpose of which was to determine relaxation times. An application in MATLAB was developed that allows for the analysis of T₁ and T₂ relaxation times. The relaxation times of cell cultures were determined over a 6-week period. In the first week, the T₁ time value was 1100 ± 40 ms, which decreased to 673 ± 59 ms by the sixth week. For T₂, the results were 171 ± 10 ms and 128 ± 12 ms, respectively.

Keywords: 1.5 Tesla; 3D; bioreactor; breast cancer cells; coil; fixed-charge density; glycosaminoglycan; in vitro MRI; magnetic resonance imaging.

MeSH terms

Cell Culture Techniques
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted*
Magnetic Resonance Imaging* / methods
Phantoms, Imaging
Sample Size

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.