Direct hepatic tumor injection in rats: Can it be used for analysis of MR imaging contrast agents?

With a recently described rat model technique for direct hepatic injection of tumor cells for imaging research, there were concerns that the injection itself might produce lesions detectable with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, thereby producing false-positive results. To examine this possibility, the authors prospectively studied 14 Sprague-Dawley rats after direct hepatic injection of cells from a rat hepatoma cell line. The rats were imaged with a variety of pulse sequences before and after intravenous injection of the contrast agent manganese dipyridoxal diphosphate at a dose of 8 mumol/kg. No intrahepatic lesions could be detected with MR imaging during the first 6 days after direct hepatic injection of the tumor cells. Therefore, the direct injection technique should be accurate for evaluating various MR imaging sequences and contrast agents for early hepatic tumor detection.