Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the most frequent causes of death in industrialized countries. Stem cells therapy seems to be very promising for regenerative medicine. Skeletal myoblasts transplantation into postinfarction scar has been shown to be effective in the failing heart but shows limitations such, e.g. cell retention and survival. We synthesized and investigated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) as an agent for direct cell labeling, which can be used for stem cells imaging. High quality, monodisperse and biocompatible DMSA-coated SPIONs were obtained with thermal decomposition and subsequent ligand exchange reaction. SPIONs’ presence within myoblasts was confirmed by Prussian Blue staining and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). SPIONs’ influence on tested cells was studied by their proliferation, ageing, differentiation potential and ROS production. Cytotoxicity of obtained nanoparticles and myoblast associated apoptosis were also tested, as well as iron-related and coating-related genes expression. We examined SPIONs’ impact on overexpression of two pro-angiogenic factors introduced via myoblast electroporation method. Proposed SPION-labeling was sufficient to visualize firefly luciferase-modified and SPION-labeled cells with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) combined with bioluminescence imaging (BLI) in vivo. The obtained results demonstrated a limited SPIONs’ influence on treated skeletal myoblasts, not interfering with basic cell functions.

The changes in water distribution in maturing lupin (Lupinus luteus L.) seeds were visualized with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI data showed local inhomogeneities of water distribution inside the seed. At the late seed-filling stage the most intense signal was detected in the seed coat and the outer parts of cotyledons in the hilum area, but during maturation drying the decline in MR image intensity was faster in the outer part of the seed than in the central part. The changes in water status were characterized by NMR spectroscopy. Analyses of T₂ relaxation times revealed a three-component water proton system in maturing lupin seeds. Three populations of protons found during seed maturation, each with a different magnetic environment causing a different relaxation rate, were correlated with three fractions of water (structural, intracellular, and extracellular) that were observed during seed germination. This study provides evidence that lupin seeds have similar states of the different water components with regard to seed moisture content at two distinct physiological stages, seed maturation and germination. The unique feature of maturing lupin seeds is the presence of the high ¹H-NMR signal in areas corresponding to the vascular bundles. Tissue localization of dehydrins showed the presence of dehydrin protein in the area of vascular tissue. An anti-dehydrin antibody detected three polypeptides in lupin embryos with molecular masses of 73, 43 and 28 kDa, respectively. The temporal pattern of dehydrin protein accumulation correlates well with seed desiccation.