Perfluorocarbon particle size influences magnetic resonance signal and immunological properties of dendritic cells.

The development of cellular tracking by fluorine ((19)F) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has introduced a number of advantages for following immune cell therapies in vivo. These include improved signal selectivity and a possibility to correlate cells labeled with fluorine-rich particles with conventional anatomic proton ((1)H) imaging. While the optimization of the cellular labeling method is clearly important, the impact of labeling on cellular dynamics should be kept in mind.