Generated Novel H MRI Reporter for β-Galactosidase Activity Detection and Visualization in Living Tumor Cells.

For wide applications of the gene in cellular/molecular biology, small animal investigations, and clinical assessments, the improvement of noninvasive imaging approaches to precisely assay gene expression has garnered much attention. In this study, we investigate a novel molecular platform in which alizarin 2--β--galactopyranoside acts as a gene/β-gal responsive H-MRI probe to induce significant H-MRI contrast changes in relaxation times and as a concerted effect for the discovery of β-gal activity with the exposure of Fe. We also demonstrate the capability of this strategy for detecting β-gal activity with -transfected human MCF7 breast and PC3 prostate cancer cells by reaction-enhanced H-MRI and relaxation mapping.