Self-fluorescence of chemically crosslinked MRI nanoprobes to enable multimodal imaging of therapeutic cells.

Old chemistry for novel materials: Self-fluorescent high-relaxivity T(2)-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents are produced. They are a novel type of MR/optical dual-modality in vivo imaging nanoprobe using glutaraldehyde crosslinking chemistry, and they are used to label and monitor therapeutic cells both in vitro and in vivo.