H-hMSCs GRE T2WT2W Control N-hMSC H-hMSCsControl N-hMSCs 24 h 1 week A B CD Figure 1: 1 H images showing the hyper intense stroke lesion (red circles) with T 2 W images (a & b) and labeled cells with non filtered T 2 *W GRE images (c and d) for 24 h (a & c) and 1 week (b & d) post MCAO.

Figure 2: A) Percent decrease in signal voids (adjusted fir the average signal voids in the control group) between 24 h and 1 week. Voids corresponding to labeled N-hMSCs or H-hMSCs after transplantation and ischemic stoke ; B) Nonlocal means filtered T 2 * GRE images showing clearance of labeled N-hMSCs at three time points: 10 h, 24 h and 1 week. 10 h24 h1 week

Figure 3A: Percent change ADC in stroke lesion. Figure 3B illustrate percent change in ADC on the contralater side. Significance determined with ANOVA and Tukey’s post hoc test (p<0.05) N=3 N=5 A B N-hMSCs H-hMSCs Control N-hMSCs H-hMSCs Control

24 h 1 week H-hMSCsControlN-hMSCs H-hMSCsControlN-hMSCs A B Figure 4: Sodium images showing the stroke lesion as hyperintese (red circle) for each respective group and time point: A) 24 h and B) 1 week.

B N=7N=5 N=7 N=5 A n=5n=7 n=5 n=7 Figure 5: Percent decrease in stroke volume based on a) T 2 W 1 H and b) 3D GRE 23 Na datasets. Inserts are showing representative images from each respective sequences. Significance determined with ANOVA and Tukey’s post hoc test (p<0.05). N-hMSCs H-hMSCsControl N-hMSCs H-hMSCsControl

Figure 6A: Histology from an animal sacrificed 24 h after cell injection and MCAO and stained with antihuman mitochondria antibody (green) for the hSMCs. Intracellular MPIO particles are red and the nucleus are stained blue with Hoescht stain. Co-localization of hMSCs and particles are evident, proving the delivery of the hMSCs and MRI contrast. Flourescent images are taken at 20x. Figure B show an ex vivo image aquired at T (50-  m isotropic resolution) from the same subject with hypointense voids coming from labeled hMSCs. Scale bar is 5 mm. A B 20x