Real-time magnetic resonance imaging visualization and quantitative assessment of diffusion in the cerebral extracellular space of C6 glioma-bearing rats

Interstitial drug delivery is a promising technique for glioma treatment; however, suboptimal methodologies limit the ability to document the delivery of therapeutic agents. The present study employed magnetic resonance imaging for real-time visualization and quantitative assessment of drug diffusion in gliomas. Using gadolium-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA) as a tracer, we considered diffusion in the agarose gel phantom as a reference and compared the diffusion and distribution patterns between the control group and C6 glioma-bearing rats after direct cerebral infusion. Our findings confirmed that Gd-DTPA diffusion was severely impaired in gliomas and presented in an anisotropic pattern in the caudate nucleus. The proposed method provides a new approach for the real-time monitoring of interstitial drug delivery and quantitative assessment of biophysical structural variations in diseased tissue.