Usefulness of iron colloid-enhanced MRI in differentiating experimental hepatocellular carcinoma from hyperplastic nodules in rats: analysis by microautoradiography

Abstract To demonstrate the usefulness of iron colloid-enhanced MR images in differentiating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from hyperplastic nodules (HN), microautoradiographs of chemically induced rat liver tumours were prepared 4 h after intravenous injection of chondroitin sulphate iron colloid (CSIC) labelled with 59Fe by the dipping technique. 20 Wistar rats were allocated into three groups: (1) a normal group, 10; (2) an HN group, 5; and (3) a liver cancer (LC) group, 5. In the LC group, a diet containing 0.06% 3′-methydiaminobenzine tetrahydro-chloride (DAB) was administered for 3 months. In the HN group, a diet containing 0.025% acetylaminofluorene (AAF) was administered for 4 months. Non-labelled CSIC was intravenously injected into five rats in the normal group, and pseudomicroautoradiographs were prepared using the same technique (normal cold group). 50 sites for examination were randomly selected for each of the normal liver tissue, HN, well-differentiated HCC (HCC-W), and moderately to poorl...