There is an interest in developing a means for non-invasively monitoring stem cell therapies. MRI contrast agents as intracellular tags provide a means to detect transplanted cells in vivo and, as such, their application for this purpose is gaining momentum. The purpose of this study was to develop a novel gadolinium based intracellular contrast agent. Along with cell tracking purposes, gadolinium contrast agents permit the application of quantitative MRI techniques useful for assessing therapy-related regeneration.Fluorescent Gd-loaded emulsions were developed and applied for stem cell labeling. Labeled cells were detectable using MRI in vitro. Protocols characterized this contrast agent, quantified the cellular uptake and evaluated the effects, both physical and biological, that this labeling had on a population of cells. A thorough evaluation of paramagnetic stem cell labeling is lacking in the literature and thus, our study will provide a protocol that is applicable to any cell labeling technique.