Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Bacteria: In Vitro Characterization of Lactobacillus Crispatus ATCC33820 at 3T

In this work, we showcase through an in vitro phantom that the bacteria Lactobacillus crispatus ATCC33820 (LC) can be detected using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and that we can manipulate sample relaxation rates as a function of fraction of bacteria. Moreover, our current results indicate a significant difference between 6.25% of LC and stool samples that were used as background signal (p < 0.001). LC bacteria have high relaxation rates that, for the most part, are uncommon to observe within the human body. Thus, our ability to manipulate LC bacteria raises the possibility of tracking select bacteria that could be found in probiotics, or to explore other detectable bacterial strains to indirectly study the microbiome in vivo.