Imaging Stem Cell Implant for Cellular-Based Therapies

Abstract

Stem cell-based cellular therapy represents a promising outlook for regenerative medicine. Imaging techniques provide a means for noninvasive, repeated, and quantitative tracking of stem cell implant or transplant. From initial deposition to the survival, migration and differentiation of the transplant/implanted stem cells, imaging allows monitoring of the infused cells in the same live object over time. The current review briefly summarizes and compares existing imaging methods for cell labeling and imaging in animal models. Several studies performed by our group using different imaging techniques are described, with further discussion on the issues with these current imaging approaches and potential directions for future development in stem cell imaging.

Function of mesenchymal stem cells following loading of gold nanotracers

“…A majority of this research has focused on labeling MSCs in vitro, delivering the MSCs in vivo, and sacrificing the animals at various time points and performing histology. 8 However, a major issue with this methodology is the inability to track the cells within a single, live animal model over time. As a result, many investigators have turned to noninvasive i maging modalities which are capable of monitoring and tracking stem cells within a single model over time.…”

1980-2011: Parkinson's Disease and Advance in Stem Cell Research

“…Moreover, targeted delivery of SCs through alternative routes could be easily compared in animal models. Concordantly, one objective of modern neuroimaging is to identify markers for clinical diagnosis, monitor the disease progression, define the exact SC placement and analyze the impact of long-term drug/cell therapy through the direct spatio-temporal visualization of SCs as well as their effect on disease progression in patients, using non invasive techniques (Lee et al, 2008). A successful SC therapy requires extensive knowledge on SC properties, appropriate harvesting, manipulation and apt implantation, but also subsequent graft monitoring in the long time to verify the permanence of reparative mechanisms (Nikolic et al, 2009).…”

“…The development of innovative imaging techniques, combined with the creation of reporter transgenic mice, has widen our understanding of some pathological mechanisms of the disease and allowed the identification of specific pharmacological targets (van Nuenen et al, 2009). Precise tracking of transplanted SCs through novel imaging techniques, as well as monitoring of engraftment efficiency directly in vivo allows the immediate correlation between beneficial effects and SC localization/amount (Lee et al, 2008). Genetic tags have and continue to help researchers and bioethicists to track transplanted cells overtime following their behavior and dispersion in tissues in animals.…”

Optical Imaging for Stem Cell Differentiation to Neuronal Lineage

“…Recently, the rapid progress of molecular imaging techniques has enabled noninvasive evaluation of the characteristics of transplanted stem cells and, in particular, of their viability. Molecular imaging allows real-time visualization of survival and quantitative viability measurements of stem cells implanted into an injured site by using stem cells labeled with proper radiotracers or reporter-based gene expression schemes [4][5][6][7][8][9].…”